National Mine Rescue Contest Facility for 2011 and 2013

The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), U. S. Department of Labor (DOL) is posting this sources sought notice for facilities and services to host the Coal Mine National Mine Rescue Contests for 2011 and 2013 at a location east of the Mississippi river. MSHA desires a location with good highway and air travel access to facilitate travel by contest participants and MSHA personnel. MSHA has held the coal mine national mine rescue contests on a bi-annual basis to encourage large scale industry participation, while not creating a cost prohibitive requirement that companies would struggle to meet on an annual basis. Coal Mine rescue teams are sponsored by industry and perform an invaluable service to the mining industry. MSHA will use responses from this RFI to formulate a bidder's list. MSHA will eventually award a contract for two contest years - 2011 & 2013. Because MSHA has sponsored Mine Rescue contests in the past, and promoted national recognition for the winners, industry participation has grown to such an extent that only the largest facilities can handle the participation of the number of teams sent to the bi-annual contests. The expected number of contestants could be between 1200-1500 industry participants. MSHA must contract for large facilities, meeting rooms, hotel space, and meals to accommodate the MSHA employees, who coordinate the contests, evaluate results, create and review problems and solutions, and encourage teams to compete. MSHA has traditionally held the coal rescue contests on indoor facilities as large as state fairgrounds to accommodate the number of participants and government and industry personnel required to make the contests successful. The growth of mine rescue contests has severely limited the number of facilities within the US that are large enough to handle the national mine rescue contests. MSHA seeks to maximize participation by holding the contest east of the Mississippi river where the majority of the coal mining operations exist in the continental US. Hotel and event facilities large enough to hold a coal mine rescue contest are also in high demand by private industry and Government organizations that have many personnel attending Industry and Government wide conferences, seminars, training sessions and other events. MSHA is planning to hold the 2011 and 2013 contests during the period of mid-September through mid-October for 2011 and 2013. The schedule would be as follows: Move in, Set-up and Registration on Saturday and Sunday; Events on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday; with Awards banquet to be held on Thursday evening. Check out and removal of equipment and rescue contest materials on Friday and Saturday, if necessary. More specific requirements are estimated to be according to the list below. 1. Space requirements are: Approximately 264,000 indoor contiguous sq. ft. of exhibit space for fields and vendors; with 54,000 sq. ft. administrative space and lock-up space, and 50, 000 sq. ft. of ballroom space for the awards banquet. 2. Parking requirements for mine rescue team trucks and equipment: A minimum of 100 - Secured parking spaces for Team Trucks/Trailers and Parking for Officials & Participants. 3. Chairs and Tables Monday - First Aid and Bench Contest 200 - 6 foot tables 30 - 8 foot tables 850 - Chairs Tuesday and Wednesday - Mine Rescue Competition 400 - 6 foot tables 1,600 - Chairs Thursday - Preshift Competition 200 - 6 foot tables 575 - Chairs Thursday - Banquet 225 - 8 foot round tables 1,800 - Chairs 4. Additional Items: *Electrical Outlets: 5 each, 20 amp circuits Internet Hookups: 10 each, Hi Speed hookups Phone/Fax Lines: 2 each Bleachers: 12 each Security Charges as required by Convention Center - Access in and out of docking areas Open or Close Air Wall(s) Trash Cans: 25 each for field area Waste Disposal Water Containers - Approximately 12 each, 5 gallon dispensers with unlimited replenishment of water. Keys - 5 each Stage(s) - 32"h - 8' x 6' for lock-up space Stage - 32"h - 18' x 40' (minimum) for Banquet Emergency Response Personnel (if required by facility) Rigging (if necessary) 5. Lodging 250 lodging rooms for Competition Officials 800 - 1,000 lodging rooms for participants, vendors, company executives, and others. Lodging rooms must be available during the contract time period but will not be a part of the facility contract. Rooms are to be available at government per diem and lodging rates at time of occupancy. Approximately 250 lodging rooms will be reserved by the Mine Safety & Health Administration to be paid by each individual's government travel card. Approximately 800 - 1,000 lodging rooms will be booked by each team and vendor individually. MSHA requires lodging facilities to be in close proximity to the contest location for the convenience of participants. Reservations will be requested to be made as soon in advance as possible. Notifications will immediately be sent to all teams and vendors once the contract has been awarded. Because of the need to host large scale coal mine rescue contests on a bi-annual basis, and industry practices that require advance booking more than one year in advance, MSHA must be able to contract for facilities, space, hotel rooms and meals beyond the current fiscal year and as far as three years in advance. All interested parties who have the facilities, space, resources, support, hotel space within close proximity to the contest space, and the dates available for the contests are asked to electronically submit via e-mail a statement of capabilities with supporting documentation, not to exceed 15 pages, to the Contracting Officer listed below. This notice is posted solely for information and planning purposes and does not constitute a solicitation. Proposals are not requested at this time and will not be evaluated. Responses to the RFI will not be returned. Responses to this notice are not an offer and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. Please submit electronic responses in MS WORD Office 2003 or ADOBE ACROBAT 9.0 to Cooper.darrell@dol.gov by the closing date of November 6, 2009. Facsimile transmissions are not desired and will not be considered.