C--Award of Contract for Soil Borings, etc.

Federal Business Opportunity Announcement Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity IDIQ Contract for Soil Borings, Soil Testing, Concrete and Other Materials Testing, Geotechnical Design Support Services and Construction Quality Assurance within the limits of the New Orleans District 1. CONTRACT INFORMATION: This contract is being procured in accordance with the Brooks A-E Act as implemented in FAR Subpart 36.6. Firms will be selected for negotiation based on demonstrated competence and qualifications for the required work. North American Industrial Classification System NAICS Code is 541330. This is an UNRESTRICTED solicitation. All qualified business concerns may submit offers. Offers from large business firms must comply with FAR 19.7 and FAR Clause 52.219-9 regarding the requirement for submission of a subcontracting plan. The US Army Corps of Engineers FY 09 subcontracting goals are for specified percentages of the contractor's total planned subcontracting amount to be placed with the following: Small Business 70.0%; Small Disadvantaged Business, 6.2%; Women-Owned Small Business, 7.0%; Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business, 0.9%; and HUB Zone Small Business, 9.8%%. To be eligible for contract award, a firm must be registered in the Department of Defense (DoD) Central Contractor Registration CCR via the CCR Internet site at http://www.ccr.gov or by contacting the DoD Electronic Commerce Information Center at +1 (555) 000-0000. ATTENTION: All contractors who submit an offer/bid are required to register in the Online Representations and Certifications Application (ORCA). See FAR clauses 52.204-7 and 52.204-8 for requirement information. The web site for ORCA is http://orca.bpn.gov. ORCA registration replaces some of the Representations and Certifications. An Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ), Firm-Fixed Price (FFP), contract will be negotiated and awarded with a base period not to exceed one year and four option periods not to exceed one year each. The anticipated award date is December 2009. Contract ceiling will not exceed $50,000,000 or 5 years in duration, whichever comes first. $200,000 is guaranteed for the original contract period and for option year one, and $100,000 for option years two, three and four. The Government reserves the right to exercise the contract options before the expiration of the base contract period or preceding option period, if the contract amount for the base period or preceding option period has been exhausted or nearly exhausted. Work will be assigned by negotiated task orders. This announcement is open to all businesses regardless of size. If a large business is selected for this contract it must comply with FAR 52.219-9 regarding the requirement for a subcontracting plan for work it plans to subcontract. The plan is not required with this submittal. The primary purpose of this proposed contract is to provide services for projects located within the geographic boundaries of the New Orleans District. Secondarily, this contract may be used to provide services within the geographic boundaries of any other U.S. Army Corps of Engineers District. The contractor will have the right to refuse orders for services to be performed outside the geographic boundaries of the Mississippi Valley Division. 2. PROJECT INFORMATION: Projects typically include levees, floodwalls, pump stations and related flood control and hurricane risk reduction work. Work will consist of: (a) Field assignments which may include locating borings in the field and providing location information consisting of elevation, latitude and longitude, and station and offset; taking soil borings and sealing bore holes; setting permanent bench marks as well as installing piezometers, slope inclinometers, wells, settlement plugs, and settlement plates. Conduct pile driving analysis, obtaining subsurface information by using cone penetrometer and/or vane shear testing and performing noise and vibration monitoring. Hand auger, soil probe, general type (3-inch x 42-inch thin wall Shelby tube), split spoon and 5-inch x 4.5-foot undisturbed fixed-piston type methods are to be used in the soil boring operations. Samples from the thin wall Shelby tube and split spoon samplers must have a minimum diameter of 2-7/8 inches ID and 1-3/8 inches ID respectively. Some borings will require hard access (marsh, swamp or heavily forested areas) and work over water requiring special equipment. Samples must be delivered promptly to the testing lab, either Government or A-E, as specified by the task order. All sampling equipment including the sampling head device for 5-inch diameter sampling, 5inch diameter sample tubes, and sample extruder for 5-inch undisturbed borings will be furnished by the Contractor. Corps representative will inspect field operations to verify geotechnical investigations are being performed in accordance with Corps EM 1111-1-1804. (b) Testing laboratory and storage facility shall be established within 50 road miles of the New Orleans District once the contract has been awarded. Testing laboratory assignments may include classifying, determining water content and atterberg limits, performing unconfined compression tests, performing (Q) and (R) triaxial compression shear tests; performing direct shear (S) tests, direct simple shear tests (DSS), 4-inch diameter consolidation tests, mechanical grain size and hydrometer analysis; performing 15-blow and 25-blow compaction tests on selected samples; computing and compiling test results; furnishing boring and laboratory data in both text and CADD files fully compatible with the Intergraph/Bentley MicroStation CADD software (Version 8 or later) and in the form of plotted boring logs. The A-E contractor will perform extruding of 5-inch undisturbed samples under controlled lab environment. Laboratory soil testing shall be performed in accordance with Corps EM 1110-2-1906. Other ASTM tests may be assigned. (c) Design assignments may include selection of design parameters; stability analyses of levees, reinforced embankments, dikes and other earthen structures; stability analyses of slopes for revetments, channels and excavations; pile capacity curves including down drag considerations; wave equation analyses; settlement analyses; cantilevered, anchored, and multi-braced retaining wall analyses; bearing capacity determinations; retaining and flood walls stability analyses; seepage analyses; dewatering design, ground water study and operation and interpretation of data obtained from A-E provided pile driver analyzer. Design plates, drawings, technical specifications and design reports will be furnished as paper copies in both text and MicroStation compatible design files. (d) Geotechnical engineering services during construction including, but not limited to, in-place density testing, moisture content testing, organic content determination, sand content determination, jet index testing, compaction testing (including one-point compaction testing); geotechnical engineer and technician may be stationed on site for consultation and material testing. (e) Field QA testing, including soils, concrete and asphalt, during construction. Field QA services will also include steel testing and inspections services in accordance with AWS D1.1 Structural Welding Code Steel and as specified by the task order during construction or fabrication/procurement phases of the project. (f) All work shall be performed in accordance with the CEMVN HSDRRS design guidelines and appropriate USACE EMs and ASTMs. 3. SELECTION CRITERIA: The selection criteria are listed below in order of precedence. Criteria (a) thru (g) are primary. Criteria (h) thru (j) are secondary and will be used only as 'tie-breakers' among technically equal firms. (a) Specialized work experience and technical competence of the firm and its key personnel to perform the services listed above. (b) Capacity (personnel and equipment) to accomplish work in the required time. Provide the following minimum to perform work: five (5) 4-person drill crews and three (3) crews must be stationed within 50 miles of MVN District Office; two (2) 2-person survey crews; capacity to produce 25 triaxial 3 point UU tests and 50-Atterberg limits per day; ten (10) Registered Professional Engineers specialized in Geotechnical Engineering practice; twelve (12) engineering/soils/concrete lab technicians; eight (8) soil/concrete field technicians and four (4) CADD draftspersons. Demonstrate capacity to produce CADD drawings utilizing CADD programs fully compatible with the Intergraph/Bentley MicroStation CADD software, Version 8 (or later). Provide the following minimum equipment to be utilized for the project: five (5) core drill rigs with off road access capability (undisturbed drill rig Failing 1500 or equivalent), two (2) wireless-type pile driving analyzers, two (2) soil probes, two (2) cone penetrometers, two (2) shear vanes, ten (10) vibration monitoring devices, three (3) noise monitoring devices, six (6) triaxial test cells, ten (10) 4 inch diameter consolidometers, one (1) direct-shear machine, one (1) direct-simple shear machine, two (2) ovens capable of determining organic content, two (2) flat boats with outboard motors. Provide adequate temperature controlled space for storage of undisturbed samples before testing and until instructed to discard such samples. Provide USACE Validated laboratory within the New Orleans area to perform soil and concrete ASTM/USACE test procedures; provide facilities to cure and test fifty (50) concrete compressive strength samples a day; automatic soil compaction hammer; eight (8) nuclear soil density gauges. (c) Professional qualifications necessary for satisfactory performance of required services. Firm must have a Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD) water well contractor license and the soil testing laboratory must/will need to be validated by Corps of Engineers Material Testing Center, in accordance with ER 1110-1-261 (dated 28 Apr 1999) and ER 1110-1-8100 (dated 31 December 1997), at Vicksburg, MS. (d) Knowledge of geology and geographic area within the limits of the New Orleans District. (e) Past performance on Department of Defense and other contracts with respect to cost control, quality of work and compliance with performance schedules. (f) Safety plan outline and past performance (man-hours lost to accidents in the last 100,000 man-hours of work by firm). (g) Quality control plan outline. (h) Location of the design firm in the general geographical area of the anticipated projects and the New Orleans District Headquarters. (i) Extent of participation of small businesses, small disadvantaged businesses, women-owned small businesses, veteran-owned small businesses, service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses, HUB Zone small businesses, historically black colleges and universities, and minority institutions on the proposed contract term as measured as a percentage of the estimated effort. (j) Volume of DoD A-E Contract Awards in the last 12 months with the objective of affecting an equitable distribution of DoD A-E contracts among qualified firms, including SB and SDB. 4. SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS: Interested firms, which meet the requirements described in this announcement, are invited to submit 5 copies of SF 330 2004 (SF 330 replaced both SF 254 and SF 255 which are no longer accepted) for the prime firm and all subcontractors and consultants to the address below not later than 3:00 P.M.. on August 20, 2009. In Block E of the SF 330, include an organizational chart, equipment requirements, the use of subcontractors or consultants and describe the firm's design quality control plan, including coordination of subcontractors and consultants. Each offeror/consultant listed within Part I of the SF 330 must submit Part II of the form with this package. In the SF 330, Part I, Section F, cite whether the experience is that of the prime (or joint venture) from an office other than that identified in Block 21. The evaluation factors listed must be addressed in the appropriate sections of the SF 330 for the prime contractor as well as all subcontractors and consultants, and any other pertinent information. Complete Safety Plan will be required after contract award. Safety performance data (person-hours lost) must be submitted including data for any subcontractors. A detailed Quality Control Plan must be received and approved by the Government prior to contract award. For Overnight or courier deliveries, the physical address is U.S. Army Engineer District, New Orleans, 7400 Leake Avenue, ATTN: CEMVN-CT-W, Room 172, New Orleans, LA 70118-3651. This is not a Request for Proposal. Refer to Solicitation No. W912P8-09-R-0107. The Contract Specialist that will be handling this procurement is Walker Pitts. His phone number is +1 (555) 000-0000. His E-Mail Address is contact@example.gov.