Positive Train Control Safety Plan (PTCSP)

Award Notice: Positive Train Control Safety Plan (PTCSP), Request for Amendment (RFA) - Third Party Assessment. This is a notification that the Blanket Purchase Agreement for the subject requirement was awarded on September 27, 2023. The following are highlighted details of the award: Task Order Number and Vendor Name: 693JJ623AF000007 - Dayton T. Brown, Inc. 693JJ623AF000007 - ABSG Consulting, Inc. Period of Performance: 9/27/2023 through 9/26/2024 Base Period Award decision basis: The above awardee offered the best value to the Government. If you have any questions, please email me at kerianne.gallagher@dot.gov. V/R, KeriAnne Gallagher -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Questions and responses have been posted and can be viewed in attachments/links as of 8/15/2023. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial items prepared in accordance with the format in Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 12.6 and under the authority of FAR Part 13.5, as supplemented with additional information included in this notice. This announcement constitutes the only solicitation; quotes are being requested and a written solicitation will not be issued. This Request for Quotation (RFQ) includes incorporated provisions and clauses in effect through Federal Acquisition Circular 2023-04 dated 06/02/2023. The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Code for this procurement is 541611 - - Administrative Management and General Management Consulting Services. - The Product and Service Code (PSC) for this requirement is R425 - - Engineering and Technical Services. The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) intends to establish a Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) and is soliciting quotations for the - Positive Train Control Safety Plan (PTCSP) Request for Amendment (RFA) requirement pursuant to the Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (RSI08). After receiving certification from FRA, a railroad must submit a RFA to its Positive Train Control Safety Plan (PTCSP) to make critical safety modifications to its PTC system. Depending upon the complexity of the modification, multiple sections of the railroad's PTCSP may be affected. Therefore, the RFA requires the review and approval of a number of complex technical documents. Please provide a Firm Fixed-Price quote in accordance with the attached Statement of Work (SOW) (Attachment No. 1) This acquisition is for a commercial item or service and is conducted under the authority of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part 13'Simplified Acquisition Procedures; and FAR Part 12'Acquisition of Commercial Items and is not expected to exceed the simplified acquisition threshold. The period of performance for this (BPA) shall be 12 months from the date of award, plus two (2) 12-month option periods. Each Order will be issued as Firm, Fixed-Price based on the size of the RFA. Instructions to Offerors: All offerors shall submit a technical proposal, past performance proposal, and a price proposal. The price proposal shall be in a separate document. Volume I shall contain the technical response to the SOW and past performance. The technical response shall include the technical approach and understanding of the requirement and should demonstrate that the offeror is technically capable of completing the work in all SOW areas. The technical approach shall not exceed ten (10) pages. The body of Volume I: - Shall use a font size of 10 points or larger; - Shall include a title page (1 page), technical approach (not to exceed 10 pages), and past performance (not to exceed 3 pages). The title page shall include the vendor's name, Unique Entity ID (UEI) number, vendor's point of contact, and a brief table of contents. The technical quotation shall address the following technical evaluation criteria: 1. Technical Approach to the Statement of Work. In this section of the proposal, the Offeror shall demonstrate its knowledge, understanding of the Government's requirements and objectives as they are described throughout the SOW and approach to accomplishing the tasks. - Offerors should describe in detail their approach for conducting an independent PTCSP and RFA review. This narrative shall include the processes, personnel, and deliverables anticipated/required to complete the assessments required. - Offerors shall also demonstrate their ability to meet schedule requirements. - Available corporate resources and capabilities to successfully fulfill the requirements and deliverables outlined in the SOW. - A Gantt chart identifying each project task shall be included providing a visual aid cross-walked to the proposed approach. - Offerors shall demonstrate their ability to address the depth and breadth of these requirements based on their knowledge of the subject area and familiarity with regulatory or programmatic issues that affect the work to be performed under the contract. - Offerors shall demonstrate familiarity with the statutory and regulatory requirements that apply to railroads implementation of PTC systems under 49 U.S.C. - 20157 and 49 CFR part 236, subpart I. - Any information the Offeror wishes to bring to the attention of the Government. Past Performance In this section of the proposal, Offerors will be evaluated on their past performance on projects of similar size, scope, and relevance to validate the capacity and capability to perform the contract successfully. Offerors may include work performed for both Government and non-government clients, as well as work performed as a subcontractor. This submission shall not exceed three (3) pages. - Offerors shall provide a list of three (3) efforts of the same or similar size, scope, and relevancy undertaken in the past five years and include client names and contact information (phone and email). If Government, include the contact information (phone and email) of the Contracting Officer and/or the Contracting Officer's Representative. - Offerors shall briefly describe the three efforts most relevant to the services described in this SOW. The brief description must include any specific experience related to railroads implementation of PTC systems and/or review of PTCSPs. - Offerors shall demonstrate the similarity of size, scope, and relevancy of these efforts to FRA's review of PTCSPs. - Offerors shall submit similar past performance information on proposed significant or critical subcontractors but such subcontractor past performance must be relevant to that required under this RFQ and to the work to be subcontracted. - The proposal must describe the amount of work and criticality of the work subcontracted, and the extent of involvement of the subcontractor(s) in the effort (such as 40% of the total labor hours.) - Offerors must either provide the above information or affirmatively state that it possesses no relevant past performance. In addition, FRA will use the Past Performance Information Retrieval System (PPIRS) and other available sources to retrieve offeror past performance information. In the case of an Offeror without a record of recent and relevant past performance or for whom information on past performance is not available, the Offeror will receive a neutral rating for past performance. The Government may use additional information other than that provided by the Offeror in evaluating past performance. Volume II shall contain the offeror's price proposal. The price quotation shall include a fixed price with a breakout of labor category(s), labor rate(s), labor hours, total amount for each size/volume as indicated on page 2 of the SOW, complete with rates over the intended three (3) years of the BPA. The price quotation shall not exceed five (5) pages. Rates will be assessed for fairness and reasonableness. Offerors are also encouraged to propose discounts and should clearly identify differences between their proposed prices and discounted prices. Only vendors that have a valid UEI and registered in the System for Awards Management (SAM) (https://www.sam.gov/portal/public/SAM/) shall be eligible to be awarded a contract from the federal government. The following FAR subpart 12.3 provisions and clauses apply to the solicitation: Solicitation Provisions: - 52.212-1, Instructions to Offerors'Commercial Items. Each offeror is required to submit their Request for Quote as specified in FAR provision 52.212-1, o Addendum to 52.212-1'Additionally, in accordance with FAR 12.302, the FAR clause at 52.212-1 is tailored to include o Instructions: Interested Offerors shall prepare their quotation in accordance with the Attachment No. 1, - Statement of Work. - 52.212-2 Evaluation-Commercial Items - 52.212-3, Offeror Representations and Certifications'Commercial Item Additional Clauses: - 52.212-4 Contract Terms and Conditions'Commercial Items, by reference, Alternate I (Nov 2021) - 52.212-5 Contract Terms and Conditions Required to Implement Statutes or Executive Orders'Commercial Items (applicable clauses included as an attachment) - 52.217-8 Option to Extend Services (Nov 1999) - 52.217-9 Option to Extend the Term of the Contract (Mar 2000) - 52.203-98 Prohibition on Contracting with Entities that Require Certain Internal Confidentiality Agreements - 52.219-8 Utilization of Small Business Concerns (Oct 2022) - 52.219-9 Small Business Subcontracting Plan (Oct 2022) Alternate II (Nov 2016) - 52.219-16 Liquidated Damages - Subcontracting Plan (Sep 2021) - 52.223-18 Encouraging Contractor Policies to Ban Text Messaging While Driving (Jun 2020) - 52.244-2 Subcontracts (Jun 2020) - 52.246-6 Inspection-Time-and-Material and Labor-Hour (May 2001) - 52.204-27 Prohibition on a ByteDance Covered Application Interested offerors are reminded that award can only be made to a Contractor who is registered in accordance with FAR 52.204-7, Alternate I System for Award Management. Offerors must submit a subcontracting plan in response to this solicitation. Quote Submission: Offerors are encouraged to direct any questions by email to the Contract Specialist, Taryn Bushrod at taryn.bushrod.ctr@dot.gov. Questions regarding this combined synopsis/solicitation shall be submitted to the email address above no later than August 10, 2023, at 1:00 pm ET. The Government intends to award multiple BPAs resulting from this solicitation to the responsible, qualifying offerors whose offers conforming to the solicitation will be most advantageous to the Government, price, and other factors considered. The following factors shall be used to evaluate offers: i) technical capability of the services offered to meet the Government requirement, (ii) price, (iii) past performance. Non-price factors (Technical and past performance), when combined, are significantly more important than cost or price. Quotations are due no later than August 21, 2023, at 1:00 pm ET and should be submitted via e-mail to Taryn Bushrod at taryn.bushrod.ctr@dot.gov. No late responses will be accepted. No telephone inquiries will be accepted.