C--Solicitation Notice For Indefinite Delivery Contract for Cost Engineering Support of the Mobile District and South Atlantic Division, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

CONTRACT INFORMATION: A-E services are required for an Indefinite Delivery Contract (IDC) for Cost Engineering to Support the Mobile District and South Atlantic Division's Cost Engineering Workload. This announcement is open to all businesses regard less of size. The contract will be awarded for a period not to exceed a total of three years. Work under this contract to be subject to satisfactory negotiation of individual task orders, with the total IDC contract value not to exceed $750,000 over the th ree-year life of the contract. There is a possibility that multiple contracts may be awarded on this solicitation. Selection of A-E firms is not based upon competitive bidding procedures, but rather upon the professional qualifications necessary for the p erformance of the required services. All interested Architect-Engineers are reminded that, in accordance with the provisions of PL 95-507, they will be expected to place subcontracts to the maximum practicable extent consistent with the efficient performan ce of the contract with small and small disadvantaged firms. 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 that part of the work it intends to subcontract. The su bcontracting goals for this contract are as follows: a minimum of 50.9% of the contractor's intended subcontract amount be placed with small businesses (SB), 8.8% be placed with small disadvantaged businesses (SDB), 7.2% be placed with women-owned small bu sinesses (WOSB), 2.9% be placed with HUB Zone small business, and 0.5% be placed with Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business. If a large business firm is selected for this contract it will be required to submit a detailed subcontracting plan during contract negotiation. If the selected firm intends to submit a plan with lesser goals, it must submit written rationale in the plan why the above goals can not be met. A firm fixed price contract will be negotiated. The North American Industry Classificati on System (NAICS) code for this action is 541330. PROJECT INFORMATION: The contract will be used to perform Civil Works, Military, U.S. Army Medical Command (MEDCOM), Support for Others (SFO), and Hazardous Toxic & Radioactive Waste (HTRW) cost engineerin g services mainly in the States of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee; with possible work in South or Central America and other locations as may be assigned to the Mobile District. The firm selected must be capable of providing complete cost engineering services to include the preparation of cost estimates from programming/conceptual through final design on a variety of Civil, Military, MEDCOM, SFO, and HTRW projects. The firm selected will also be required to perform cost estimating review i n accordance with the Mobile District guidance, perform cost analysis, attend meetings, site investigations, prepare Change Order cost estimates and assist in negotiations, if required. The firm must have cost engineering specialist(s) for each required de sign discipline, such as architectural, structural, civil, mechanical, and electrical. The firms cost engineering specialist(s) must be certified by a professional organization, such as AACE, ICEC, PCEA, etc. The firm's cost estimators must spend the majo rity of their time performing cost engineering functions, and must be specifically identified, and their competence indicated by resume, in Section E of the SF 330. Individual resumes are limited to one page each. In addition, the firm selected must demons trate experience in using MCACES AND PACES software. During the life of this contract, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mobile District, Cost Engineering Branch will be transitioning to new cost estimating software. This software is the Second Generation (MII) of MCACES. The selected firm must indicate their willingness to train all their cost engineers/estimators in the use of this software. All applicable trai ning costs will be borne by the selected firm. SELECTION CRITERIA: The selection criteria are listed below in descending order of importance (first by major criterion and then by each sub-criterion). Criteria A thru D are primary. Criteria E is secondary and will only be used as tie-breaker among technically equal firms. A. Professional Qualifications: The selected firm must have, either in-house or through consultants, the following Cost Engineering disciplines, with registration required where applicab le: (1) Architect; (2) Structural; (3) Civil; (4) Mechanical; (5) Electrical; (6) Value Engineering; (7) Scheduler. The firms cost engineering specialist(s) must be certified by a professional organization, such as AACE, ICEC, PCEA, etc; B. Specialized Ex perience and Technical Competence in: (1) Preparing cost estimates utilizing the following estimating software: MCACES GOLD and PACES. The firm selected must demonstrate experience utilizing this software; (2) Preparing cost estimates for Civil Works, Mil itary, MEDCOM, SFO, and HTRW projects; (3) Preparing programming/ conceptual, parametric, final design, and change order estimates; (4) Preparing cost estimates for projects in Latin America; (5) Scheduling with specialized experience and technical compete nce in preparing construction schedules for both horizontal and vertical construction projects that result in a construction duration that can be used in bidding a project. Schedule shall include a breakdown of all construction activities with related dura tions in a neat, orderly fashion. Said schedule may be included in the construction solicitation, therefore it must be accurate and defendable; (6) The ability to provide quick turnaround of task orders; (7) Preparation of Value Engineering Studies; (8) De scribe the firm's quality management plan, quality assurance, and coordination of the in-house work with consultants; C. Capacity to Accomplish the Work: The capacity to accomplish at least three (3) $25,000 individual task orders simultaneously; D. Past Performance: Past performance on Department of Defense (DOD) contracts with respect to cost control, quality of work, and compliance with performance schedules; E. Small Business, Small Disadvantaged Business and Women-Owned Small Business Participation: Extent of participation of small businesses, small disadvantaged businesses, women-owned small businesses, historically black colleges and universities, and minority institutions in the proposed contract team, measured as a percentage of the total estimat ed effort. SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS: Interested Architect-Engineer firms having the capabilities to perform this work are invited to submit one (1) completed paper copy of their SF 330 (Architect-Engineer Qualifications) to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, M obile District, CESAM-EN-DW, ATTN: Mr. George V. Poiroux, 109 St. Joseph Street, Mobile, AL 36602. SF 330 6/2004 edition must be used, and may be obtained from the Government Printing Office or from the following web site: http://contacts.gsa.gov/webforms .nsf/22f268ed0a398629852569a4006ed7cc?OpenView&Start=30. All fonts shall be at least 10 or larger. Submittals must be received no later than 3:00 P.M. Central Time on 09 March 2005. Regulation requires that the Selection Board not consider any submittals r eceived after this time and date. Late proposal rules in FAR 15.412 will be followed for submittals received after 3:00 P.M. Central Time on the closing date specified in this announcement. Include ACASS number in SF330 PART I, Section B, of Block 5. To ob tain ACASS number, call the ACASS Center at +1 (555) 000-0000. A maximum of ten (10) projects including the prime and consultants, will be reviewed in PART I, Section F. Use no more than one page per project. In Block G-26, along with the name, include the fir m the person is associated. Block H is limited to 10 pages. A Part II is required for each branch office of the Prime Firm and any Subcontractors that will hav e a key role in the proposed contract. This is not a request for proposal. Solicitation packages are not provided. The A-E Evaluation Board (Selection Board) is tentatively scheduled to commence on 14 March 2005. As required by acquisition regulations, int erviews for the purpose of discussing prospective contractors' qualifications for the contract will be conducted only for those firms considered most highly qualified after submittal review by the selection board. Interviews will be conducted by telephone. Send Specific technical questions related to this announcement to Mr. George V. Poiroux, FAX 251/694-3626. Other forms of communicating questions to the government will not be honored. The government will try to respond to all questions, however, respon ses may not be furnished to all questions, and particularly those received late in the advertisement period (0-10 days prior to the proposal due date). Personal visits for the purpose of discussing this solicitation are not allowed. To be eligible for cont ract award, a firm must be registered with the Central Contractor Registration database. For instructions on registering with the CCR, please see the CCR Web site at http://www.acq.osd.mil/ec. URL http://www.sam.usace.army.mil/