Read the title of MTA solicitation D81803 and you'd swear it's station work: "Project Management Consultant Services for Design-Build Services for Station State of Good Repair Work – Package 3." Now read the scope inside the same notice: a 36-month, task-order contract for project-management consultant services supporting the MTA's underground-storage-tank and environmental remediation program — the long-running cleanup of petroleum-contaminated soil and groundwater at transit facilities, work the agency has carried under a state environmental consent order since the 1990s.

Those are two different worlds. A construction-management firm that lives on station rehab packages will open this RFP and find drilling, groundwater sampling and tank-removal oversight. And the firms this contract is actually for — environmental engineers, remediation specialists, the consultants who manage this kind of program — may never open it at all, because nothing in the title says environmental.

The scope text is the operative description, and it's substantial: indefinite-quantity technical, environmental and construction-management services issued as task orders across MTA facilities, estimated at over $5 million to $10 million, 100 percent MTA-funded. Participation goals are 15 percent MBE, 15 percent WBE and 6 percent SDVOB.

Here's why this matters today and not next week: the virtual pre-proposal meeting is Monday, September 14 at 2 p.m., and attendee lists have to be submitted by noon this Friday, September 11. A firm that spends this week confused about what the contract is loses its seat at the meeting. Proposals are due October 15.

A title this far off the scope usually draws a corrective addendum, so watch the solicitation for a re-issue before the meeting. In the meantime, the practical read is simple: price the scope, not the heading. If your shop does environmental program management, this is your contract no matter what the title says — get registered for the pre-proposal before Friday. It rides on our board as RFI-001970.