Lowell Creek Tunnel Refurbishment Seward, Alaska

THIS IS A SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE ONLY FOR LOWELL CREEK TUNNEL REFURBISHMENT, SEWARD, ALAKSA. OFFERS OR BIDS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED FOR THIS NOTICE. THIS IS NOT A PRE-SOLICITATION.

The Alaska District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is conducting market research to facilitate a determination of acquisition strategy prior to releasing a solicitation for this anticipated project. The determination of acquisition strategy lies solely with the government and will be based on market research and information available to the government from other sources. Please note that this Sources Sought Notice is for information only and does not constitute a solicitation for competitive offers/bids and is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government. However, all interested parties who believe they can meet the requirement are invited to submit information describing their capability to provide the required services.

DESCRIPTION OF WORK: The Lowell Creek Tunnel Refurbishment will perform repairs of worn areas and install new center rails of the Lowell Creek Tunnel which is an approximately 2,100 feet long tunnel through Bear Mountain on the southwest side of Seward, Alaska. The tunnel is 10-foot high, horseshoe shaped tunnel which diverts Lowell Creek away from Seward, through Bear Mountain into Resurrection Bay. The tunnel is lined with concrete and rails throughout. The floor and some of the side wall is armored with a combination of 40-pound and 70-pound railroad rails welded to channel crossties embedded in concrete. Water flow and debris have damaged the tunnel intake transition, tunnel entrance, tunnel sidewall and invert lining. Work will occur throughout the tunnel and intake and will include the following: remove loose concrete between the rails at the intake transition, replace any missing rails and high strength silica fume concrete; remove loose concrete at exposed rebar at the tunnel entrance wall and roof and replace with high strength silica fume concrete and reestablish missing portions of reinforcement mat of #6 deformed bars; fill a large gouge in the tunnel side wall and adjacent floor and extend centerline steel rail through tunnel; and repair tunnel invert by securing loose or missing rails, filling two penetrations through the invert into bedrock, removing loose concrete and re-lining the invert with high strength silica fume concrete with a 1 inch overlay of metallic aggregate silica fume concrete to original invert conditions. Work will require diversion of Lowell Creek during repairs and will likely occur in the winter when stream flow is lowest. The estimated award date of the contract is December 2026.

The Contractor shall furnish all labor, equipment, supplies, materials, supervision, and other items and services necessary to accomplish the work. The Contractor shall comply with commercial and industry standards as well as all applicable Federal, State, and local laws, regulations, and procedures.

The total estimated magnitude of construction for base and option items is between $10,000,000 and $25,000,000. The type of contract shall be firm-fixed price. Construction wage rates (formerly Davis Bacon Act wage rates) shall apply.

If the project is cancelled, all bid preparation costs will be borne by the offeror. If a large firm is selected for this contract, the firm must comply with FAR 52.219-9 regarding the requirements for a subcontracting plan for that part of the work it intends to subcontract.

All offerors are advised that they must be registered in the System for Award Management (SAM) (www.sam.gov) before submitting a bid. Joint ventures must also be registered in SAM as a joint venture. Offerors are advised to begin this process when they prepare their bid in order to ensure registration is in place should they be selected for award. Lack of registration in the SAM database would make an offeror ineligible for award.

The requirement for the submission of both performance and payment bonds in an amount equivalent to 100% of the award price shall be applicable. Therefore, the successful firm shall have the capability to acquire such bonding.

THIS IS A SOURCES SOUGHT OPEN TO ALL QUALIFIED PRIME CONTRACTOR FIRMS (Large and Small Businesses under NAICS 237990). All interested firms are encouraged to respond to this announcement no later than 30 June 2026, by 2:00 PM Alaska Time, by submitting all requested documentation listed below to: US Army Corps of Engineers, Alaska District, ATTN: CEPOA-CT (Gosh), PO Box 6898, JBER, AK 99506-0898 or via email to Jennifer.Gosh@usace.army.mil and George.G.Nasif@usace.army.mil. Interested prime contractor firms are encouraged to submit a capabilities package (not exceeding 5 pages) demonstrating the ability to perform the work described above. Packages should include the following information regarding their company:

1. Company Name, Address, UEI Number, Cage Code, Business Size under the applicable NAICS above, and Point of Contact information including email and phone number.

2. SAM status, Large or Small Business status under the applicable NAICS above, and type of small business (8a, HUBZone, Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned, Women-Owned, etc.)

3. Firm's single project bonding capability/limit.

4. Demonstration of the firm's experience as a prime contractor on projects of similar size, type, and complexity within the past 10 years. List actual projects completed and include project title, location, and a brief description of the project.

5. Your company's intent to propose on the Lowell Creek Tunnel Refurbishment project as a prime contractor. Interested parties are invited to submit a response to this Sources Sought by the response time stated above. Please submit all documentation by email in PDF format. Responses received after this time and date may not be reviewed.