(RFI) National Cultural Resources Services Contract

Request for Information (RFI) St. Louis District National Cultural Resources Services Contract. 1. Purpose This RFI is being issued for informational and planning purposes and follows on four previous RFIs posted on Federal Business Opportunities, FedBizOpps.gov (October 2014, June 2015, Feb 2016, and June 2016). Information gathered will be considered in order to determine the most appropriate acquisition strategy, contract type, whether adequate competition exists for, and the feasibility of an Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) Small Business Set-Aside contract to provide cultural resources support to the St. Louis District. The information requested will be used within U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Mandatory Center of Expertise for the Curation and Management of Archaeological Collections (MCX CMAC), St. Louis District to facilitate decision making and will not be disclosed outside the agency. This announcement is not a Request for Proposal/Quote (RFP/RFQ) or solicitation of any kind. MCX CMAC is not seeking or accepting unsolicited proposals for this requirement. This notice should not be construed as a commitment of any type by the Government to take or not take any action. Please note that USACE will NOT be responsible for any costs incurred by interested parties in responding to this RFI. 2. Background/Description General: The St. Louis District is considering development of a national cultural resources services contract that would be awarded to qualified Small Business offerors. The work includes providing multidisciplinary cultural resource related services for projects undertaken by the USACE, MCX CMAC, St. Louis District in support of other USACE districts and federal government entities. Services will include, but are not limited to, both terrestrial and marine archeological investigations, historic architectural services, architectural history, archival and knowledge management services, Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) summary and inventory services, Geographic Information System (GIS) and Global Positioning Systems (GPS) services and related modeling, and historic studies in support of cultural resources investigations. They also include collections management, conservation and curation services and other types of museum support. Additionally, contractors would need to be familiar with current federal regulations, guidelines, and procedures related to the types of services required. Finally, the contractor would need to demonstrate an ability both to manage and supervise subcontractors and to handle large volumes of work under strict deadlines. This market research will gather information on the available cultural resources services providers to help define the requirement and formulate an acquisition strategy appropriate for these requirements. The NAICS for this effort is 541720, Research and Development in the Social Sciences and Humanities. The Small Business Administration small business size standard for NAICS code 541720, Research and Development in the Social Sciences and Humanities is $20.5 million annual average receipts (total or gross income) over the past three years. Contract Areas: The primary contract area will be limited to the continental United States (CONUS) as identified on the associated map. Contract Duration: Contract duration being considered is three years; the MCX CMAC favors using a professional services IDIQ, with a base year plus two option years. 3. Scope Services that may be required under this contract would be detailed in individual Performance Work Statements. These services may include, but are not necessarily limited to, the character of services outlined below. a. Background literature, archival, and courthouse record research and informant interviews, including preparation of land use histories, research of federal, state, and local regulatory agencies. Field work might not be necessary to meet this requirement unless specified. b. Geomorphological and environmental reconstruction. c. Reconnaissance and sample surveys. d. Intensive, comprehensive cultural resources surveys. e. Architectural evaluation of standing structures, and structural conservation. f. Assessment, treatment, stabilization, restoration and preservation of historic wood, historic masonry, and mortar materials, including cleaning methods, paint removal, removal of biological growth or other destructive agents, mortar analysis, preparation of mortar joints and re-pointing, forensic evaluation of material conditions, use of protective coatings and water repellants, and the repair and treatment of concrete materials. g. National Register assessments of engineering structures. h. Test excavation of archeological sites for assessment of National Register eligibility and, if significant, preparation of detailed data recovery plans. i. Assessments of project impacts to cultural resources. j. Various types of mitigation including, but not limited to, archeological data recovery, forensic recovery, architectural mitigation measures, Historic American Building Survey/Historic American Engineering Record/Historic American Landscapes Survey (HABS/HAER/HALS) recordation, scaled drawings, popular histories, and collection of oral histories. k. Preparation of research designs, unanticipated discovery plans, and discovery plans, including for peer review, for a broad array of data gathering and resource assessment techniques, ranging from national, to regional, to project, to site-specific. l. Construction project monitoring, including hosting and working with tribal monitors. m. Remote sensing techniques, including field work and analyses of data. n. Computerization of data for analyses, and creation or maintenance of meta data, data base files, and models. o. Scanning and georeferencing of data for GIS manipulation and production of overlays from maps and aerial images. p. Ingesting data to existing world-wide-web sites or digital repositories. q. Museum services, exhibit design, curation and collections management, of archaeological, natural history, and military collections including acquisition, assessment, valuation, transportation, stabilization, conservation, preservation, installation, and curation of recovered remains, records, and both macro and micro objects. r. Archives, records, and knowledge assessment and management services, including digitization, records management, archival processing, historic research, and delivery of specialized archival research and classification. s. Preparation of scientific reports and summary reports for professional journals, the lay public, or the management sector. t. Preparation of tutorials and teaching aids, educational materials in both digital and analog format for publication and electronic dissemination. u. Design and preparation of descriptive and interpretive displays, video productions, and mobile applications for public outreach, training, and education. v. Preparation of various types of documentation (including agreement documents) for submission to the State Historic Preservation Officer, the Keeper of the National Register of Historic Places, Department of Interior National NAGPRA, and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation as appropriate. w. Maritime/underwater archeological survey and excavation. x. NAGPRA support related to the statute and regulation. y. Obtain, retrofit, equip, staff, supervise, manage, maintain, and demobilize collections processing laboratories; and z. Furnish expert personnel to attend conferences and furnish testimony in any judicial proceedings involving archeological and historical study, evaluation, analysis, and reports. Delivery orders may require a combination of the above skills or tasks. All work must be able to satisfy current scientific standards for data collection, analysis, and reporting, as well as local, state, and federal requirements. Additionally, conservation and curation services are required to manage USACE owned or administered collections. In 2009, USACE St. Louis District MCX CMAC implemented a program under which a portion of the legally authorized curation work of the nation is being performed in such a manner as to also assist veterans in achieving both employment and training opportunities. The Veterans Curation Program was signed into law by President Obama on 6 July 2016 (Public Law 114-189). Contractors working on archaeological collections that need to be rehabilitated in accordance with the National Historic Preservation Act, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), the Archaeological Resources Protection Act, 36 CFR Part 79, and ER 1130-2-540 have combined teams of professional archaeologists and archivists with veterans to perform this work. Three full services laboratories are currently operating using funding provided through the USACE on an 8(a) contract, and five ancillary laboratories are operating with smaller teams under other contractual vehicles. The MCX CMAC provides collections, equipment, and management, to implement the various program elements in cooperation with the Contractor at these eight locations. The USACE continue to investigate development of additional opportunities to rehabilitate collections using similar operating models, at multiple scales, to meet the needs of other federal agencies. Required Subject Matter Experts: For future solicitations, the contractor will need to be able to provide the services of qualified professionals to minimally include individuals with the following capabilities/responsibilities, principal investigator, field and laboratory supervisors, archaeologists, laboratory assistants and technicians, physical anthropologists, paleoethnobotanists, geomorphologists, zooarchaeologists, architectural historians, historians, archivists, archives technicians, conservators, curators, underwater archeologists, art handlers and movers, graphic designers, and other varied professional personnel, crew members and staff. While it is understood that firms do not typically maintain all of these specialties, contractors should be aware that locating such specialized services may become part of their requirement for any given investigation. 4. White Paper Given the contracting needs of the MCX CMAC outlined above, interested parties are requested to submit the following information in the format of a White Paper. The White Paper should be concise and address only the information requested below. Please limit your response to not more than 5 pages; questions may be answered quite briefly. Again, this information will support market research activities within USACE. USACE is proposing to solicit a single national contract for cultural resources services as outlined in a through z above. Contractors interested in providing nationwide services should team to provide both regional and task specific specialized professional services. 1. Provide general information for your team including a brief background for your firms and information on the location, size, and capabilities of your businesses, and what categories of Small Businesses each team member qualifies under (e.g., VOSB, WOSB, 8(a), etc.). 2. Based upon the map (Figure 1), is your firm interested in and capable of bidding on the nation? **See map attachment uploaded in FBO.** 3. Briefly explain the capabilities of your firm to build a team that would address regional distinctions and specializations across the regions outlined on the map below. 4. Does your firm have the infrastructure to financially manage performance of tens of millions of dollars' worth of work on twenty to thirty task orders across the country? 5. Please speak briefly to your teams capabilities for bidding the types of services that may be required under this contract per the Scope (Section 3, above). 5. Response Instructions Responses to this RFI must be submitted to the POC listed below via e-mail no later than 1600 CT, Oct 26, 2016. 6. Point of Contact (POC) Lisa White Contract Specialist US Army Corps of Engineers St. Louis District/CEMVS-CT Office: (314) 331-8518 Fax: (314) 331-8746 Email: lisa.white@usace.army.mil