Savannah Harbor Expansion Project (SHEP), Fish Passage Weir and Floodplain Bench, Augusta, GA

This solicitation is Lowest Priced Techically Acceptable(LPTA) stand alone contract. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Savannah District intends to award a contract on the basis of this notice. Location of Work: The proposed Fish Passage at the New Savannah Bluff Lock & Dam work is located along the Savannah River at the existing New Savannah Bluff Lock and Dam. The existing New Savannah Bluff Lock & Dam (NSBLD) and New Savannah Lock and Dam Park areas located on the Savannah River in Richmond County, Georgia and Aiken County, South Carolina, about 13 miles southeast of the City of Augusta downtown area and approximately 187 miles upstream of the Atlantic Ocean. The proposed Fish Passage channel will be located on government-owned property in Richmond County, Georgia and Aiken County, South Carolina. Background: The NSBLD project was authorized by the 1930 and 1935 Rivers and Harbors Acts for the sole purpose of improving commercial navigation on the Savannah River between the upper limits of the Savannah Harbor and Augusta, Georgia. In 1979, maintenance of the navigation channel was discontinued and according to the most recent Periodic Inspection (2014) the current condition of the project is poor. The dam consists of a lock and gated spillway. Although the NSBLD no longer serves commercial navigation, the pool impounded above behind the dam provides water supply for multiple users, including two municipalities and several industries upstream. The lock was also operated to pass migratory anadromous fish species until it was closed in May of 2014 due to significant deterioration and structural issues. An inspection of the lock and dam structure was conducted in 2016 to develop a list of recommended repairs to support the fish passage. In 2019, the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Savannah District recommended that a fixed weir rock arch fish passage with a floodplain bench be constructed to replace the NSBLD and support fish passage (USACE Savannah District 2019). Description of Work: This project is to construct a fish passage and floodplain bench at the NSBLD site. The nature-like rock weir fish passage was designed to address passage of the entire suite of native aquatic life in the Savannah River while addressing hydraulic, geomorphic, stability and safety issues based on proven concepts in nature-like fish passage. The rock arch rapids concept has been applied at over 100 sites in Minnesota, North Dakota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, New York, Maine, North Carolina, and other states. The floodplain bench is designed to handle excess flows in the Savannah River from 8,000 cfs to 25,000 cfs. The Fish Passage contract constitutes the largest segment of proposed New Savannah Bluff work and is intended as a follow-on to the First Order of Work services. The project has been conceived with the assumption that all construction access will be from the Georgia property owned by the USACE. With no upper pool property available at the construction site for mooring along the Georgia shoreline, the Contractor will need to secure an offsite loading dock for marshalling of materials, dockage for numerous transport and work barges. With much of the reliant on marine construction, there will be a high reliance on careful river flow regulation. The scope of this contract includes three major construction features: (1) construction of a 175-foot wide rock and vegetation-lined floodbench channel to help alleviate peak river flows, (2) construction of a 12 acre rock arch fish passage structure upstream of the present dam, and, (3) demolition of the existing dam and lock structures. When complete, the Fish Passage structure will cover any remaining deep foundations or concrete remnants from the dam or lock structures. Shorelines on both the South Carolina and Georgia shores will be cut back to 1v:4h stable sideslopes and armored with imported 14-inch diameter granite riprap. Floodbench construction entails demolition of present park features, including remaining park roadways and other surface features. Topsoil and lawn areas will be stripped before 116,000 CY of soil material is excavated and disposed offsite. During excavation, soil plugs will remain at both upstream and downstream river openings. A permanent 20-foot wide stone weir constructed with D50=21" 3.5-foot thick armor layer will have an impermeable sheetpile core extended across the upper floodbench entrance. The weir elevation of 113.0 will limit flows greater than 8,000 cfs into the overflow channel. Stone armor on sideslopes and the channel bottom will be a rock section consisting of 1.9-foot armor layer of D50=14" granite riprap over continuous layers of 12-inch layer of GDOT Type II Stabilizer Aggregate "bedding stone" and a heavy 12-ounce non-woven geotextile fabric. To aid in floodbench construction, the Fish Passage Contractor is to construct 1,350 feet of 28-foot wide aggregate roadway for access following the floodbench top-of-slope. Two additions to the floodbench are a full-width 400-foot long section of the floodbench bottom reinforced with a geosynthetic grid with soil infill and seeded with a native seed mix suited to wet soils. Once established, vegetation is expected to require little maintenance other than removal of larger trees or shrubs that could inhibit flows through the floodbench. To complete floodbench construction, tops of the downstream lock walls need to be demolished so that floodbench flows can reach the Savannah River. The second major feature and by far the largest item of the Fish Passage contract will be the actual rock arch fish passage structure. Two large combi-wall temporary cofferdams will be used to construct the bifurcated 12-acre terraced rock footprint. The completed structure will be 900'x 500' plus abutting shorelines. The rock structure will be constructed inside dry cofferdams using GPS controlled equipment to assure critical elevations are produced and maintained within specified tolerances. The full width upper 300 feet of structure armoring will consist of 3.5 feet of Type A D50=21" granite armor stone over a 12 inches of GDOT Type II Stabilizer aggregate. A continuous layer of heavy 12-ounce non-woven geotextile fabric will separate bedding stone from a prepared base or, where required, an estimated 116,000 tons of imported GDOT Type 3 riprap underlayer stone. A second smaller placement of the heavier Type A armor stone will be in the floodbench weir armoring. Total bid quantity of the larger Type A Armor Stone will be 46,000 tons. The remainder of the downstream fish passage surface footprint, upstream and downstream 1v:4h stone approaches, and riverbank 1v:4h sideslopes will use a lighter, Type B Armor Stone section with D50=14". Project modeling has demonstrated expected peak river velocities will be lower across these armored areas. This lighter armor section will consist of a 1.9-foot minimum thickness of Type B Armor Stone, 12" of bedding stone, and heavy geotextile separator fabric. Imported underlayer aggregate fill will also be required in deeper locations, primarily on the Georgia half of the river near the lock. A minimum of 82,000 tons of Type B Armor Stone will be required to construct the remainder of the fish passage and abutting sideslopes. The flow controlling feature of rock arch fish passages, are the 1850+ large 4-to-10 ton granite "Weir Stones" that are set to a 2 percent grade and embedded 12"+ into the armor stone surface and project 2 to 3 feet, where defined, above armor stone. Each of the 23 each 500+-foot long arches are placed in lines spanning the river with intermediate gaps between weir stones varying from 1 foot to 4 feet. Larger gaps are staggered to form a sinusoidal flow pattern intended to lower velocities needed to facilitate fish passage through the structure. The fish passage design also includes four smaller cobblestone or "glide" stone beds primarily for robust redhorse propagation. The four beds total 11,500 square feet and are located on upper and middle terraces along each Two permanent steel pile wall structures are needed to accommodate the fish passage layout. A 313-foot long cantilever combi-wall is required along the upstream South Carolina shoreline, and a second 215-foot cantilever wall will be installed along the upstream property line on the Georgia side at the upstream end of the floodbench. Lastly, the third major item within the Fish Passage contract will be demolition of the present dam, lock and esplanade structures. Demolition work will largely be in accordance with a Contractor-prepared work plan and coordinated with other ongoing construction sequencing. Much of the lower demolition work for the lock and dam structure removals is to be performed "in the dry" and within cofferdams. Working in the dry will facilitate removals of equipment, piping and conduits from the earlier structures. Upon completion of construction, the Fish Passage Contractor will restore the site and demobilize job trailers and equipment. Evaluation Criteria: This contract will be solicited and procured using FAR Part 15.101-2 Lowest Price Technically Acceptable (LPTA) source selection procedures in rendering the best value decision for award of this contract. The nonprice evaluation factors for this solicitation are as follows: FACTOR 1: CORPORATE RELEVANT SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE FACTOR 2: PAST PERFORMANCE The Government will evaluate all proposals and those offerors achieving Acceptable ratings in both technical factors will then be evaluated by price with the lowest price offeror to be selected for award. Note: Please note that the proposal due date is specified in the solicitation. No additional media (CD-ROM, floppy disks, faxes, etc.) will be provided. Any prospective Offeror must register in the System for Award Management (SAM) at https://www.sam.gov. After completing SAM registration, interested Contractors and their subcontractors must then register at https://beta.sam.gov in order to obtain solicitation documents, plans and specifications for this solicitation. Contractors that have an existing account should be able to use their existing logins to search for the solicitation number once it is released at https://beta.sam.gov. It is the Offeror's responsibility to check the Internet address provided as necessary for any amendments that may be posted to this solicitation. Paper copies of this solicitation will not be available. Other methods of requesting a package will not be honored. Contractual Questions should be forwarded to Contract Specialist, Jennifer Cavanagh at jennifer.s.cavanagh@usace.army.mil or to the attention of Contracting Officer, Whittni Hiscox at Whittni.C.Hiscox@usace.army.mil.