12445125R0002 VA Creeper Call for Quals Pre-Proposal Conference Number Two.docx

Transcript June 9, 2025, 1:59PM

REQUESTED VIDEO LINKS

https://youtu.be/cPz2WZcP4Sw?si=7pFWlRbe0DgEdmQp news https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYenstLgYPM Travel with Bane – Destruction Nov 2024 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ck4ImYr4ifs News 5WCYB MAR 2025 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gTbY88fkKM HWY 58 and Governor JUNE 2025

Alves, Steven - FS, KY started transcription

Alves, Steven - FS, KY 4:18 Good morning, everyone.

Thank you for calling in this morning for the Virginia Creeper Trail Pre Proposal Conference number two. I've got #1 on the slide, but it's #2.

I played a little bit of videos there for you to see the scope of the damage to the trail, but more importantly the impact.

To the Damascus area, the people that are running businesses.

And then a comment from the Governor of Virginia, just last within the last 10 days that shows you the priority that they are placing upon the trail rebuild.

So a lot of parts are moving.

As you heard the governor say, your participation is key to ingenuity and the ability to accomplish this project in a rapid time to truly impact the community.

So with that, I'm going to go through the slides. If you were on the previous conference, the slides have not changed.

What has changed since June the 2nd is the questions and answers that were submitted after the last pre proposal conference have been posted back up.

So you will see an answer to about.

95% of them.

The ones that were not answered or highlighted.

In yellow and we should have those answered later on this week in a potential amendment is pending.

So again, we will try to get all of those out this week.

The one thing you did, you also heard the governor say is the time period for the pre solicitation is over. The actual solicitation was issued yesterday.

The deadline remains unchanged for your.

Qualification packages to be submitted on the 9th of July, so this briefing is being recorded this morning.

There will be a copy of the transcript posted along with an updated questions and answers.

Should you need to submit any of those, so feel free as we go to put those in the comments box.

If you can't hear, let's see. Can you hear me now? While while I'm talking, if you can, please give me a quick thumbs up on the teams meet.

OK.

So we are seeing those if you can't hear, go ahead and log off and log back in. Sometimes it has issues.

Yeah, the issue the the audio for the the videos, if you go back to the calendar invite, I'll also post those links on the transcript at the end of today's meeting.

So I'm gonna go ahead and get through these.

So what I'm going to do today is I played the videos and some news articles that introduced you to the Creeper Trail and the importance to the community. I'm going to go over the key features requirements of the phase one call for qualifications and then I'll just re.

Some of the deadlines.

We watched the video.

That link was previously posted on the solicitation and again I'll put those links in the transcript.

The end of today.

So this is a very brief overview of the actual program.

So up in the left hand corner you see a copy of the the length of the trail, which is approximately 18.2 miles.

And it has identifications of the bridges that were destroyed.

Those that are partially still standing in the overall condition of the trail.

We're doing this as a two step design build contract. Our phase one is the call for qualifications, which is now the active solicitation.

And then we will have a request for proposal issued to three of the best qualified firms and then we have our actual execution.

Which is a period of 12 months from the date of award. We anticipate it to be awarded the middle to late of September.

Again, down in the left hand corner, a few of the pictures from the trails.

You saw some of those on the video.

So it's going to take all of the skill and ingenuity that your companies have to restore it back to its.

Prior glory.

The order of magnitude for this project is 2 to $300 million.

So even though you heard in multiple places, you know.

$650 million, not all of that goes to the Virginia Creeper Trail.

So our order of magnitude is 2 to 300 million.

We do have a strong subcontract requirement goal.

And our completion date is the end of September 2026.

In the slides, as I go down in the notes section, if you want to look at the slides, I've actually cut and paste from the section M.

That's attachment 8 for you to read.

Those are the requirements for phase two.

Or sorry phase one.

OK, so for phase one, the first thing you are going to have to do is provide a cover letter with bonding and safety record and then in factor one, we're looking at your technical qualifications, your approach and delivery is broken down into 3 sub sub factors, technical appro.

Experience and capabilities.

And then we will also be looking at your past performance.

Of your team.

So for volume one a, the first thing we are going to look at is your bonding capacity. We need to make sure that you have a minimum of 300 million for both payment and performance bonds and a letter from your surety saying they will bond out to.

That level is what is required.

For your safety, your construction safety record, we need a letter from your insurer that shows that you have an EMR.

Is 1.2 or less?

And then down at the bottom here we give you this is a pass fail criteria.

For factor one, the sub factors again are technical experience and capability.

So for your technical approach, we are looking for a 10 page submittal.

All submittals are electronic and they need to be accessible.

Pdf's we need to be able to copy and paste from them.

This expedites our review process, so please make sure your PDF is accessible and we can copy and paste from it.

We will not give you.

An opportunity to correct that if.

We cannot copy and paste.

You will be.

You will be recorded as non responsive.

We must be able to copy and paste from it.

So within the first section, again, we're going to be looking at.

Your joint venture.

You'll need to submit those agreements.

Those do not count against your page count.

And you're going to provide us a brief technical approach and that will also include an organizational chart.

So we're going to be looking at 5 projects that you submit. We'll be looking at relevancy.

And this is all currently being changed right now.

We had a bullet in there for a laboratory, so we'll be deleting that. So don't worry about that.

That question is also on the Q&A form.

So that's a we'll be making a change to it.

So for experience in the sub factor, I've again, you're gonna have two portions or partitions within this sub factor. You'll have your construction group and then you'll have your design experience group.

Both are limited to 40 pages each.

We have highlighted the dollar values for the design and the construction group that's currently under review and we'll have a answer for you.

Those are also in the.

Questions and answers section of the form that was posted last week.

Again, we're going to be looking for relevancy and relevant projects.

And the standard for that? Again, those are pending a question and answer review.

So don't panic yet.

We'll have those updated and if necessary, we'll have an amendment issued.

Or your capability or capacity to perform. Again, we're going to be looking at an overview of your project.

How would you execute this things such as schedule personnel?

How is your your safety program?

Your schedule of work.

We'll look at those over the overview for this program.

And down in the bottom again.

We're looking at the ability to meet that 30 September 2026 deadline.

So for past performance, again you'll be using questionnaires attached to the RFP. We'll be looking at C pars and any other available information.

Your past performance questionnaires that you have sent in will also be filing those and using them as part of our source selection board.

Those lacking past performance history will be rated neutral.

So where where do we currently stand on our project?

So we had last last week's meeting on the 2nd.

Today is the 9th, so we're completing that second call for qualifications Pre Proposal conference.

The deadline for questions is the 30th.

And then the submittal of your qualifications is on the 9th of July at 1300.

It.

And that's Eastern Time.

Within section L there is a phone number and e-mail address for you to send those in, and I highly encourage firms to submit them ahead of time. If you wait until one minute before the deadline and you hit the GO button on your computer, there's a high prob.

It will not arrive on time because the computer still have to process.

The size of your.

Qualification package, so it could potentially render you late.

I highly encourage you to submit it early and then call us to confirm that we have received it.

We will try to send a receipt e-mail as soon as it hits our inbox. We will reply back that it's been received and added to the qualifications folder again.

Do not wait until you know 2 minutes before the deadline.

To hit the GO button.

And that Deadline 9 July.

There we go.

Very, very short, to the point. I think the questions and answer forms that everybody has submitted information on to is actually very good.

The questions were really good, so I highly encourage you to read those and if you still have questions, feel free to send them to me in writing.

I'll add them to the list and we will try to get those posted again.

I try to get them done.

On on Friday, so I'll post them so that way you aren't looking every day or wondering.

You know the status of your question. We will try to have all of them answered and it posted to Sam. Gov on Fridays.

OK. With that, I'll go ahead and I'll start looking at the chat. If any of you have a question, if you'd like to put it in there, I can try from memory to tell you if it's already in the Q&A section or if you have a.

New one I will copy and paste from the chat and put it on the next rendition that'll come out this coming Friday.

OK, if you need to feel free to unmute your mic if it'll let you and then.

When do you?

I'm I'm.

When, when do we anticipate responses of 30 June questions?

I'm hoping we don't have a lot of questions by then, but I'll try to get the questions out or the answers out before the.

4th of July, so I'll try to get those out as soon as possible before everybody goes on vacation.

So that yeah, the Q&A file whenever I post something on sam.gov.

It will always be up at the top.

I do that to keep it from getting buried.

So always look up at the very top.

So when I issue if an amendment comes up, that'll be the only thing that isn't at the very top.

And that's because I try to keep all of this actual solicitation documents together.

But it will be the first document above the original solicitation, so I'll I'll put it on there and.

If if you're following on Sam Gov, you should receive a notice when that's updated.

I can try got everything here.

So also in addition to that to the questions and answers, one thing I do, I also will post a transcript of today's meeting, but I will also.

Put an attendance roster of the of the people and companies that called in so that way you have those e-mail addresses available and phone numbers if they called in versus using teams meeting.

The the information on section J and the the survey information will be posted in the box link.

So again, if your company has not requested access to that, please send an e-mail to me.

It's at steven.alves@usda.gov and I had a previous note on that on.

It's it's in the call for qualifications to request access. Please have your company name unique ID number, your name and the e-mail address is the most important. And I should send you a back confirmation. And you'll also see a an invitation from Box to be able to go.

In.

One some people get upset because.

The folders actually aired amongst all of the external.

Contractors. So whenever I add a new name you will get a notice that a new name has been added to the group. But as we post any new technical information into that document or into that folder, you will also receive an an e-mail that it has been UPD.

And it'll tell you what's been posted.

So it's actually a pretty good system.

OK. Are there any other questions that I can help with this morning?

OK, if there are no other questions, I'll go ahead and I'm gonna turn off the recording at this time.

Alves, Steven - FS, KY stopped transcription image2.png image1.png