07 Sole Source Justification.pdf

US Department of Transportation (US DOT) Justification for Other Than Full and Open Competition (JOFOC)

Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA)

JUSTIFICATION FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION

COMBINED BRAND NAME & SINGLE SOURCE JUSTIFICATION

Upon the basis of the following justification, I hereby approve, as the Contracting Officer, the solicitation of the proposed contract using other than full and open competition pursuant to the authority of 41 U.S.C. 3304(a)(1); Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 6.302-1(a)(2).

JUSTIFICATION

1. Agency and Contracting Activity:

US Department of Transportation (DOT), Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety

Administration (PHMSA), Acquisition Services Division, PHF-20.

2. Nature of Action Being Approved:

Award contract to Railinc without full and open competition.

3. Description of Supplies or Service:

Background: The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) wants to ensure that train commodity and consist data are readily available to first responders. A consist provides a description of the train and the order of locomotives, cars, and end of train (EOT) devices as well as the content of those cars. AskRail is the only consist data platform used by

Class I Railroads and first responders. Many non-Class I railroads, referred to as short lines, use

Wabtec applications to generate their consist data. This project proposal is to integrate short line consist data into the AskRail application. The AskRail application will be maintained by Railinc and owned by the Association of American Railroads (AAR).

During an incident that occurred in Anding, Mississippi in 2005, first responders were unable to determine the hazardous materials on either of the trains because consist information was destroyed during the head-on collision, which delayed the appropriate response by hours as there was some confusion that copies of the consist, for the southbound train, did not match the derailed cars. In the National Transportation Safety Board’s (NTSB) report1, one of the safety recommendations was to require real-time information regarding the identity and location of all hazardous materials on a train. Current legislation, Section 7302 of the FAST Act, requires real-time information only for Class I railroads transporting hazardous materials. Providing first responders access to real-time information from Class I, II, and III railroads will promote

PHMSA’s overall mission of safety in the transportation of hazardous materials. While the consist and the placards on the train are still the primary source of information and the railroad is the secondary source, AskRail serves as a digital resource for this information for a first responder if the information on the train is unavailable.

1 National Transportation Safety Board Safety Recommendation. (2007, April 25).

<https://www.ntsb.gov/safety/safety-recs/recletters/R07_4_5.pdf>

US Department of Transportation (US DOT) Justification for Other Than Full and Open Competition (JOFOC)

First responders can see the details of the equipment searched when the train is from a Class I railroad because of their access to AskRail, but if the train is not a Class I, the responder would have to rely on placards or shipping papers, both of which can be damaged or lost in an accident.

The Transportation Management System (TMS) by Wabtec is an application which allows short lines to structure a train's order of cars in the form of a consist and shares this data with all carrier's in the route. The TMS data can be provided in Extensible Markup Language, or XML format by Wabtec. Integrating Wabtec consist data with AskRail would fill in the consist data for most short lines.

AskRail is an application that provides more than 23,000 first responders with immediate access to accurate, timely data about what type of hazardous materials a railcar is carrying as well as

Emergency Response Guidebook references so that first responders can make an informed decision about how to respond to a rail emergency. AskRail serves emergency responders who arrive first to the scene of a rail emergency who need to identify the type and location of each hazardous material for each railcar. Through an easy-to-use mobile interface, emergency responders can query the contents of a railcar with a simple railcar ID search to see if a car is carrying hazardous material and, if so, what that material is.

Railinc currently consumes similar XML data from other carriers. This project is for Wabtec to send the XML formatted consist generated from their TMS to Railinc, and for Railinc to pivot that data to be consumable by the AskRail application.

AskRail has required tags to construct the consist information in a usable format and optional tags that allows the app to connect the waybill data, including the date the waybill was created, the unique number assigned by the railroad, the railroad that creates the waybill, the STCC, the hazardous material classification which designates the type of hazard, the UN/NA number, and the packing group which determines how the material is packed.

This project consists of two main components. Wabtec will be updating their system to send their existing XML messages to Railinc. Railinc will create a process to consume the XML consist data and attach identifying fields (e.g. company ID, consist timestamp). Then, Railinc will receive the XML format from Wabtec, and Railinc will input the XML data into the Railinc consist service to be read by AskRail. At the completion of this project, short line operators will continue to use TMS from Wabtec, but the information will automatically be sent to AskRail for availability for emergency responders.

Value and Period of Performance: PHMSA aims to contract Railinc to integrate consist data for a total estimated sum of $300,000.00. The period of performance is anticipated to be 22 months from the award of the contract.

4. Statutory Authority:

PHMSA is authorized to purchase the services of RailInc from a single source under 41

U.S.C. 3304(a)(1); FAR 6.302-1(a)(2). These services are only available from one responsible source and no other services will satisfy PHMSA’s requirements. Under the

US Department of Transportation (US DOT) Justification for Other Than Full and Open Competition (JOFOC)

FAR, use of this authority is appropriate since the source demonstrates a unique capability to provide the particular system integration associated with the research services proposed. The services in question do not resemble the substance of a pending competitive acquisition.

5. Rationale Supporting Use of Authority Cited in No. 4:

Railinc owns, maintains, and operates the AskRail application used nationwide by the emergency response community to communicate the content of hazmat railcars and the train consist information from Class I railroads. Wabtec manages hazmat data for Class II and 3 railroads (short lines). Therefore, only these two entities are in a position to partner in this effort to feed short line railroad data into the industry standard AskRail application.

6. Effort to Solicit Potential Sources:

PHF-20 confirmed that the PHMSA program office conducted an earnest effort in identifying potential contractors to perform described work in a timely manner.

7. Determination of Fair and Reasonable Cost:

Proposed costs for the effort will be analyzed in detail by the Contracting Officer to ensure that those costs are realistic, fair, and reasonable.

8. Market Research Conducted:

PHMSA program office conducted a search of potential contractors willing and able to perform needed tasks described. Railinc and Wabtec were identified as the only entities able to, in conjunction, accomplish the intended end result, which is to have all train content and consist data available to first responders responding to a rail hazmat incident.

9. Plans for Future Competition:

PHMSA has no plans for future competition since this is a one-time requirement.

US Department of Transportation (US DOT) Justification for Other Than Full and Open Competition (JOFOC)

TECHNICAL AND REQUIREMENTS CERTIFICATION

I certify that the facts and representations under my cognizance which are included in this justification along with any other supporting data and which form a basis for this justification are complete and accurate.

Lad Falat, Ph.D.

Director of Sciences, Engineering, and Research

CONTRACTING OFFICER CERTIFICATION

I certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Benjamin Patterson

Contracting Officer