Questions and Answers as of 2024 05 08.pdf

47PM1124R0011

National Elevator IDIQ and Task Orders

Pre-Proposal Conference, Site Visit, and Form Submitted Questions & Answers as of May 8, 2024

The goal of the preproposal conference, held on 30 April 2024, 10:00 to 10:45am, was to increase dialogue between GSA and industry on the nature of the solicitation and the work to be performed. The intent of establishing this Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract is to establish a contract directly with the primary contractors that perform the majority of the elevator modernization work. This IDIQ will minimize risk to elevator modernization projects, prime contractors, and GSA. This IDIQ allows for GSA and prime contractors to directly address project concerns and issues efficiently, reduce additional overhead and management costs for both contractors and Government, and foster innovative and long-term contractual solutions with the elevator modernization industry.

Please review these questions and answers as well as the questions and answers submitted during the draft request for proposal to avoid duplication or repeated questions.

QUESTION DISCUSSION

1 Will the preproposal slide presentation be issued to everyone?

It is currently on SAM.gov and emailed to the conference attendees.

2 Would GSA expect design documents as part of the submittal package? The initial task orders projects?

Each task order will be different, but the two initial task orders will not require design documents as defined in Section L.11 and Section 12.

3 Section M.4 – Small Business Plan. Please define the specific goals (in percentages) for using small business, veteran-owned small business, service-disabled veteran-owned small business, HUBZone small business, small disadvantaged business and women-owned small business concerns as subcontractors.

GSA's research demonstrated that the level of electrical, design, historian, and other work may account for up to 20 percent of subcontracted work. The solicitation and resultant contract mandates that this subcontracted work must go to small business concerns primarily. Specifically, at least 15%, not of all subcontracts but, of the total task order dollars awarded to the prime must be subcontracted to a small business concern.

4 Section M.5.1. Please confirm that either of the two members of a joint venture may submit the required projects to be evaluated for this section.

Solicitation section M.4 states that the go/no go initial qualifications include, but are not limited to, "capable of performing 80 percent of the work..." This language is reflected in other parts of the solicitation, including the statement of work, clauses, etc. The prime contractor that will be listed in GSA's contracting and financial system must satisfy the solicitation requirements.

5 Will photos be allowed to be taken by the contractor at the site visits? If not we request that the government take photos at the request of the contractor.

Photos are permitted.

6 With the Memorial Day Holiday weekend, please provide an additional 3 day bid due date extension to allow vendors to finalize pricing. A bid due date of 8am the day directly after the holiday weekend may negatively impact vendor's availability to submit responses.

The solicitation will be amended and extended until June 6, 2024 at 11:59pm EST.

7 It was mentioned during the virtual pre-bid meeting that task order submittals will be required to be submitted with the bid packages for the seed projects. Please clarify exactly what “submittal” documents are required to be included (aside from what is listed within the solicitation documents).

The terminology of submissions and submittals was interchanged inappropriately on the pre-proposal slides. The only submissions required are those listed in Section L of the solicitation. No drawings, designs, or task order type submittals are required unless specifically stated Section L of the solicitation.

8 Please confirm that the offeror will not be bound to the IDIQ Vendor pricing sheet on a task order basis and that it is for price evaluation purposes only.

The IDIQ pricing sheet is for price evaluation purposes for the IDIQ base award.

9 Solicitation - Section F.2.1 - will firms be able to set up a regional office once awarded the task order or is this regional office a prerequisite requirement?

Solicitation Section, "F.2.1 Prime Contractors shall have a physical location within 200 miles of any Task Order work performed. This location may be acquired or designated upon successful award of a Task Order. This location shall serve as storage of materials, supplies, equipment, and/or space for personnel needs, as required for successful project completion."

10 Solicitation - Section F.2.1 can one of the JV partners have an office in each location does the requirements apply to both partners?

Solicitation Section F.2.1 applies to the prime contractors in the Joint Venture.

11 Due to the nature of Design-Build projects and the large amount of auxiliary "Building Related Work (HVAC, Plumbing, Electrical, Fire Alarm, Security, Architectural, Structural, etc." associated with elevator modernizations, we request reducing the self-performance requirement from 80% to 60%. Please note that on complex projects like the two seed projects, often the design-build contractor is not the elevator contractor and is rather a general contractor.

Furthermore, in instances where the project involves a historical building or major modifications to life safety and power distribution, it has been the contractors experience that the project would include more specialized trades than a typical elevator modernization.

Understood. The government team has determined this percentage to be fair, reasonable, and in line with our requirements.

12 Is the intent to award the seed projects, or will the proposals only be evaluating pricing for these two projects?

The initial task orders are not being used to assess the Base IDIQ solicitation. The two initial task orders are existing requirements.

13 Will both seed task order projects be awarded to the same contractor?

Although the initial two task orders can potentially be awarded to the same contractor, each task order evaluation will be conducted independently.

14 Given the size and scope of the two seed task order projects, we recommend that two site visits are provided for each location, allowing access to every machine room, elevator hoistway, elevator pit, electrical vaults, and fire alarm rooms.

Although two site visits will not be provided, there will be access to every machine room, elevator hoist way, elevator pit, electrical vaults, and fire alarm rooms.

15 Why are the bonding requirements and the past performance requirements higher than what some of us

Vertical transportation within the GSA inventory needs modernization or replacement. The size and magnitude of the have seen in the past? projects has influenced this decision. Some locations currently have multiple elevators needing modernizations. Some projects will not be phased, because they have larger quantities of elevator modernization requirements.

16 Can you clarify how to handle additional questions? There is a link for questions provided in Section L.5 of the solicitation. This link can be used for each question sent.

17 Must contractors compete for the Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) and both task orders, or can contractors compete for just the IDIQ award?

Offerors must submit six volumes in response to the solicitation.

Per the solicitation, sections L.11 and L.12, “Each offeror must submit a Task Order proposal in accordance with the instructions in this Solicitation for both initial task orders, unless the offeror is designated as a Small Business under NAICS 238290 and has bonding limitations. Small Businesses may submit an offer to one or both projects but must submit at least one proposal for the initial task orders solicited with the IDIQ solicitation.”

18 Will maintenance be conducted on elevators that are adjacent or in the same machine room?

Please reference F.17.6 of the solicitation/contract which provides a general understanding or baseline of GSA’s warranty and maintenance during performance and warranty requirements.

However, individual task orders will define what maintenance is required during modernizations and what maintenance is provided under the terms and conditions of the warranty proposed.

19 Would there be a maintenance period after the completion of work as well?

Please reference F.17.6 of the solicitation/contract which provides a general understanding or baseline of GSA’s warranty and maintenance during performance and warranty requirements.

However, individual task orders will define what maintenance is required during modernizations and what maintenance is provided under the terms and conditions of the warranty proposed. There may be exemptions for individual regions, but the work would be awarded separately from this IDIQ.

20 Are there Maintenance Terms and Conditions the suppliers will be held to during the modernization project in the IDIQ?

Please reference F.17.6 of the solicitation/contract which provides a general understanding or baseline of GSA’s warranty and maintenance during performance and warranty requirements.

However, individual task orders will define what maintenance is required during modernizations and what maintenance is provided under the terms and conditions of the warranty proposed.

21 Will the current maintenance contractor step aside for the Elevator Modernization Contractor to maintain all the elevators?

The primary concern is not having two contractors in the same machine room. Where buildings have one machine room, there may be a different arrangement than when buildings have two machine rooms which are on separate ends of large complexes. In complex environments, the transition may be phased.

To clarify, any maintenance during modernization is not necessary for the Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Task Order (TO) as each machine room will be taken out of service until substantial completion of each phase.

Regarding the Lafayette Task Order, the answer is yes during the modernization and warranty periods.

22 Please provide clarification regarding question 11, could you confirm if the self-performance percentage of 60% will be determined by comparing the dollar value of elevator work to building-related work within the total contract value?

The self-performance percentage of 80% is the solicited requirement. If the total dollar value of a task order is $100,000,000, then the self-performance of the prime contractor should be $80,000,000. Each Task Order proposal will include the offeror’s Small Business Participation Plan (SBPP). Under Part 3, the “Totals Proposed Subcontracting Dollars” for the “Total Small Business (SB)” Category should be 15-20% of the “Total Proposed Price”.

23 (HUD Site Visit Question) How much future load is expected from the generator option? Specifically, what equipment is fed from the panel and generator.

Provide load schedule, drawings, and photos.

The generator is being removed from the HUD TO Statement of Work and Bid Sheet. The amendment for this change will be issued within the next week.

24 (HUD Site Visit Question) Clarify the travel path from the freight elevator to the hoistway room and the Elevator machine room at the Penthouse level.

A pdf of the travel path has been attached to the amendment_”Amend 01 Attach HUD Site Visit RFI_Travel Path…”.

25 (HUD Site Visit Question) What is the maximum height for a truck at the loading dock?

The max height is 12’-6”.

26 (Lafayette Site Visit Question) Who is in charge of inspection, how will inspection occur?

GSA will be hiring a CM Firm who will hire a 3rd party elevator inspection firm to obtain the final elevator inspection certificates. It is required the Elevator Contractor perform their own quality control elevator inspection prior to scheduling the final elevator inspection through the CM Firm/3rd party elevator inspector.

27 (Lafayette Site Visit Question) Please provide the sign up sheet(s) of the site visits.

The sign up sheets can not be disclosed without a release from attendees or pre-notification that it was going to be shared.

28 (Lafayette Site Visit Question) The Scope of Work mentions that the modernized elevators need to be tied into emergency power. Are the current elevators currently tied into emergency power?

GSA Building Management has confirmed the elevators are tied to the emergency power circuit.

29 Asking us to use Google Drive to download documents is against our Cyber security policy and I am surprised the government is using it as well.

Given the volume of attachments and the potential for confusing the IDIQ attachments with the HUD task order attachments or with the Lafayette task order attachments. GSA made a decision to use its specialized GSA account process called GACA. This is compliant with the Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 140-2.

This standard ensures that access and transmission occurs via a secure web page using the TLS 1.2 encryption standard. If your company would prefer to have documents emailed, please email the contacts provided in the solicitation.Cindy Dwier is the contact for the Lafayette documents. Andrew McElroy is the contact for the HUD documents. Non-GACA accounts or accounts that do not fall under our GSA IT Security Staff permissions will not be given access to the folder.

30 The requests for access to the task order proposals has not been equal to the number of contractors who have attended the pre-proposal conference, site visits, and/or submitted questions.

Please note that the draft RFP documents released were draft documents. The final documents were uploaded into folders and must be requested in accordance with the solicitation section J Attachments 1 and 2. Per the instructions in that section, GSA-affiliated Gmail accounts are required for access.

31 It has come to our attention that some of the task order attachments, some working papers were erroneously uploaded into the draft RFP announcement and the final task order folders.

These pages have been removed. As these are working papers, these numbers should not be considered related to the Government’s position on cost or pricing. Current research has identified and removed pass through costs and other inefficiencies.