56--Lake Odessa Habitat Rehabilitation and Enhancement Project, Stage I, Located in the Port Louisa National Wildlife Refuse, Louisa Division and Lake Odessa Wildlife Management Area, Louisa County, Wapello, Iowa.

Competition for this project is restricted to 8(a) firms that have a bona fide place of business within the geographical boundaries of SBA Region V (IL, MN, and WI) and Region VII (IA, MO). The work consists of: 1) Construct an 1100 long spillway " The spillway section will require earthen grading to obtain required heights and slopes for the spillway " Will be constructed of articulated concrete matting on the landside of the levee and shall have a reinforced concrete cut off wall " Will have rip rap placement on the river side slope and all tie-in areas " A granular base will be placed under the matting and rip rap " The matting will have topsoil placed in the voids and seed applied to vegetate 2) The existing levee will be enhanced " The existing section will be graded by raising the crown as needed, and flattening the land side slope as needed " Enhancement will be accomplished using sand borrow material (approx. 200,000 cubic yards) dredged from the river, and potentially trucked in for some areas " The total levee length is 9 miles, with the work locations spread through out the length of the levee " Will require stripping, clearing, and grubbing 3) Wetlands will be constructed by excavating seven shallow holes (approx, 18 deep by 1 acre in area) adjacent to the levee enhancement 4) A gravel road will be constructed to mitigate the existing road that will be encroached upon due to the levee enhancement (approx. 12 wide by 8 thick by 5,500 in length). 5) The contractor will be required to schedule work around site access limitations due to endangered species present at the site. A site visit is scheduled for 29 March 2006 at the proposed Construction Site at 10:00 a.m. CST. To register attendance for the site inspection and to obtain directions to the site, you must contact Area Engineer, Ms. Barbara Lester, Central Area Office, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 5235 Grand Avenue, Davenport, Iowa 52807-1014, Telephone: 563/386-0572, or 563/386-0651 (Collect Calls Not Accepted). North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Code is 237990 with a size standard of $28.5 million a verage annual gross revenues. The estimated magnitude of this requirement in terms of physical characteristics and estimated price is between $1,000,000 and $5,000,000. The Contract Award will be made using Competitive Proposal negotiation procedures for achieving the Best Value to the Government through the Source Selection (Tradeoff) Process, and will be made to the offeror whose Technical and Price Proposal combined, meets the Government's needs in the most effective, economical, and timely manner. The technical evaluation criteria factors to be used to determine the Best Value to the Government in the evaluation of Technical Proposals in descending order of importance are: Factor 1: Technical Approach, Factor 2: Past Performance, Factor 3: Proposal Risk and Factor 4: Cost/Price. In addition to the above Technical Proposal, a Price Proposal will be required to be submitted using the Price Schedule and other required forms provided in the Request for Proposal (RFP). A Government Estimate will be prepared and will be used in the consideration of Price Proposals. Price reasonableness that matches an offeror's technical approach is considered critical in the Government's Price Proposal consideration; however, award of a Contract will not be based solely on the lowest price proposal, significant, unexplained differences where proposed prices do not match a proposed technical approach and risk involved, may result in a Proposal being removed from the Competitive Range. The Government reserves the right to conduct discussions with all of the offerors within the Competitive Range. The Government also reserves the right to Award a Contract without discussions. All technical evaluation criteria Factors other than Price when combined are significantly more important than Price. After the Government evaluates the Technical and Price Proposals received, the Contracting Officer will determine a Competitive Range. The Competitive Range will consist of all of the most highly rated Proposals against all technical evaluation criteria factors and Prices proposed. Th e Contracting Officer may limit the number of Proposals in the Competitive Range to the greatest number that will permit an efficient competition among the most highly rated Proposals in accordance with FAR 52.215-1. Plans and Specifications will be available on or about 22 March 2006. For Technical Matters, questions must be submitted via the inter net at http://www2.mvr.usace.army.mil/Contracting/ . Click on Contracting Projects Q & A, select insert a question/answer, click on the drop down arrow and select the project. Input your question; add your email address if you would like an email whe n your question is answered and click on Insert This Question. Contractor will be required to commence work within 10 days after notice to proceed and complete the work within the time proposed by him after receipt of Notice to Proceed. Provisions will be included for liquidated damages in case of failure to complete the work within the time proposed in the Contractors proposal. Performance and payment bonds will be required. Bonding documents including the power of attorney shall bear an original signat ure by an officer of the surety. Offerors: Please be advised of on-line registration requirement in Central Contractor Registration (CCR) database http://www.ccr.gov/ and directed solicitation provisions concerning electronic annual On-line Representations and Certifications (ORCA) at http://orca.bpn.gov. Representations and certifications are required to be updated annually as a minimum to keep information current, accurate and complete. The electronic annual representations and certifications are effective until one year from date of submission or update to ORCA. Obtain ing Solicitation Documents: This office will no longer send copies (paper or CDS) of amendments and solicitations to interested parties. Solicitation documents will be posted on FedTeDS. FedTeDS is a web-based dissemination tool designed to safeguard acq uisition-related information. When solicitation documents have been issued and posted to FedTeDs, synopsis or pre-solicitation notice will be amended and a link provided to access FedTeDS*. The process to download from FedTeDS is: 1. Find solicitation ann ouncement in Fed Biz Opps (www.fbo.gov) 2. *Once you open the bid announcement on Fed Biz Opps, there will be a link to the solicitation on FedTeDS in the remarks section. Click on the link. 3. If you are a first time user, you will have to register** (see info included below); if not log in and open the solicitation. 4. Once you have the solicitation open, you can begin downloading the various files to your location. **Registration instructions can be found on the FedTeDS website (https://www.fedteds.gov) by clicking on the Register with FedTeDS hyperlink. Interested bidders should select the Begin Vendor/Contractor Registration Process option. The information listed below is required to register. 1. Central Contractor Registration (CCR) Marketing Partner Identification Number (MPIN) 2. DUNS Number or CAGE code 3. Telephone Number 4. E-Mail address.