Notice of Intent to Sole Source For Cement SRM Verification and Certification

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) intends to negotiate on a sole source basis, under the authority of FAR 13.106-1(b) (1), with Construction Technologies Laboratory (CTL), Inc. of Skokie Illinois to provide verification and certification of cement Standard Reference Material (SRM) 635a. The contractor shall perform 12 individual tests in accordance with the most recent, published version of ASTM C114 to validate test methods for the production of the cement SRM 635a. It is required that all testing be performed in a laboratory that has a certified ISO 17025 compliant quality system. The sole source justification is based on the following: NIST competitively awarded purchase order SB1341-12-SE-0833 to CTL for analysis and verification of Standard Reference Material numbers 633a, 1880b, 1881b, 1884b, 1885b, 1886b, 1887b, 1888b, and 1889b. SRM 635a was not able to certified prior to the purchase order expiration. It is critical that the certified and reference values in the full set of SRMs be complete, consistent and unbiased for all specimens, with all test methods coming from the same testing facility. The only way to minimize the risk for bias in analytical results is to obtain the same analytical services from the same laboratory. No other laboratory participated in certification of the previous cement SRMs. The resulting purchase order will be a Firm Fixed Price purchase order. The NAICS Code is 541380 with a size standard of $15 Million. No solicitation package will be issued. This notice of intent is not a request for competitive quotations; however, responses received by 11:00 a.m. EST September 1st, 2015, will be considered by the Government. A determination by the Government not to compete the proposed acquisition based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. Information received will normally be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement.