Vessel Service to Retrieve One (1) NOAA 2.6 Meter Buoy

The Eastern Region Acquisition Division (ERAD) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in Norfolk, VA is soliciting quotes, on behalf of the National Weather Service's National Data Buoy Center (NDBC) for a vessel service to provide a transportation or towing vessel, crew, fuel, consumables, additional hawser, additional tag lines, and all materials required to retrieve the adrift NOAA 2.6-meter Deep-ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunamis (DART) buoy 2.6D73 and transport or town them both to an approved port in the United States in accordance with the attached Statement of Work (SOW), dated December 8, 2014. BACKGROUND: NOAA deployed buoy hull 2.6D73 at DART station 41420 (300 nautical miles North of San Juan Puerto Rico) on May 17, 2014. The buoy broke free of its mooring on December, 2014 and drifted westward. The photos below show a similar buoy anchored on station and one being hoisted. The buoy is normally lifted from the "teacup handle" ring on the aluminum structure above the deck. Appendix 1 shows the mooring diagram for 2.6D73. The cause of the mooring failure is unknown, so the actual adrift buoy may have any of this mooring material (except the anchor) still connected to the bottom of the 4-leg bridle. This mooring is one of three new moorings (less than 6 months old) that failed in 2014. It is important to get the entire mooring back to help determine the cause of failure. The buoy contains acoustic transducers, transmitter, electronics and several hundred D-cell alkaline batteries for collecting data from a pressure sensor on the sea floor and transmitting it to a satellite. The last position reported was 23 2.2'N, 68'48.6'W on December 7, 2014 (150 nautical miles Northeast of Turks and Caicos Islands), traveling westward at 0.4 knots. The buoy normally reports its position every 24 hours but can be set for more frequent reporting during retrieval. The cause of the mooring failure is unknown, so the entire mooring, minus the anchor and bottom chain, could still be attached to the bottom of the buoy. The most recent position of this buoy can be found at the following web site: http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/nws_special/41420.txt or by calling the Technical Contact for this SOW. Within 5 days of the buoys' arrival at the dock, NOAA will send two technicians to the docking location to check all buoy compartments for hazardous atmosphere (oxygen and explosive gases) and make the compartments safe to open and enter. They will dismantle the buoy and prepare it for shipment back to Stennis Space Center, Mississippi. This process will take approximately 1 working days. NOAA will pay the cost of transporting the buoy away from the dock. This is a best value, competitive requirement. The Government expects to award a firm fixed price contract resulting from this solicitation to the responsible quoter whose offer conforming to the solicitation will be the most advantageous to the Government, price and other factors considered. The Government reserves the right to award to other than the lowest priced quoter with the highest technical score if the Contracting Officer determines that to do so would result in the best value to the Government. The following factors, which are listed in descending order of importance, shall be used to evaluate offers: (1) Technical; (2) Past Performance; and (3) Price Factors 1 and 2, when combined, are significantly more important than price. The solicitation will be competed as a 100% total small business set-aside. The North American Industry Classification Code System (NAICS) code for this procurement is 483111, Deep Sea Freight Transportation. The small business size standard is 500 employees. NOAA anticipates awarding one firm fixed-price contract as a result of this solicitation. All responsible and fully responsive small businesses may submit a proposal which will be considered by the agency. Any resulting contract will be awarded as a fixed-price contract. The response due date is December 17, 2014, at 4:00 PM ET. All responsible sources may submit a quote, which shall be considered by the agency. For information concerning this acquisition, please forward inquiries via e-mail to Christie McCloud, Contract Specialist, at Christie.Mccloud@noaa.gov or via telephone at (757) 605-7407. Companies offering a response to this notice shall ensure that they are registered in the System for Award Management (SAM), www.sam.gov, prior to submission of proposals. All vendors doing business with the Government are required to be registered with the SAM. NO award shall be made unless the vendor is registered in SAM. For additional information and to register in SAM, please access the following web site: https://www.sam.gov/portal/public/SAM/. In order to register with the SAM and be eligible to receive an award from this acquisition office, all offerors shall also have a Dun & Bradstreet Number. A Dun & Bradstreet number may be acquired free of charge by contacting Dun & Bradstreet on-line at: http://www.dnb.com/ or by phone at (800) 333-0505. This procurement also requires offerors to file veteran employment reports at http://www.dol.gov/vets/programs/fcp/main.htm.