Broad Agency Annoucement 693JK320BAA01 Questions and Answers.pdf

U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) Broad Agency Announcement #693JK320BAA01

Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA)

PHMSA Broad Agency Announcement 693JK320BAA01

Questions and Answers

No. Section /Page Comments/Questions Government Response

1.

Section 5.1, Page 4 Could PHMSA confirm if Section C (Schedule and

Price Estimate) counts towards the 5-page limit?

Yes, Section C counts toward the 5-page limit.

2.

Section 5.1, Page 3 Would the 12-point Times New Roman font requirement apply to tables?

No, you may use a smaller font size for tables, charts, and graphs.

3.

Section 7, Pages 7-8 Should the intellectual property text (on page 7-8 of the BAA) only be included in the Full Proposals?

Offerors should use their best judgement to determine the degree to which they comply with Section 7 of the BAA at the white paper stage.

4.

Section 3, Page 2 Should White Papers be emailed directly to:

Ben.Patterson@dot.gov

Section 3 of the BAA states that white papers must be submitted to the Agency Contact listed in Section 12. Ben Patterson is the Agency Contact listed in Section 12.

5.

Section 2, Page 1 There appears to be a discrepancy between the BAA and Attachment 1 in the research topic names/numbering. Could PHMSA confirm this is the correct numbering for the research topic areas?

The list of research topics in the broad agency announcement has been amended to align with the topics listed in Attachment 1.

6.

Section 5.1, Pages 3-4

We noticed that you do not require resumes. We wanted to find out if we can add our resumes as additional supporting documents. We will have collaborators from academia. We would like to add resumes from them also if it is allowed.

Resumes are not explicitly required. Offerors may include resumes in the appendix to their full proposal, if they are selected to submit one.

7.

Section 5.1, Page 4 With respect to the labor costs, would you like for us to provide the overall labor hours or would you prefer to see details on labor hours for each collaborator or even going down to labor hours required for each contributor in each of the teams (from technician and scientist to the manager)?

At the white paper stage, PHMSA is requesting a brief summary of the rough order of magnitude price estimate including labor be included in this section.

8.

N/A One of our white papers proposes to do work that provides specific products tailored to PHMSA that are similar to products previously delivered to other agencies. The best way to describe the product is to show an example, and we would like to append these examples to our white paper.

Is it acceptable to include an attachment, which more clearly defines what we will do with an example? The body of the white paper will meet the 5-page limit.

No. Offerors should not include attachments or appendixes to white papers.

9.

Attachment #1 The BAA does not specify the format for submitting innovative ideas to advance the safe transportation of hazardous materials that do not fit into one of the seven listed research topic areas of BAA Attachment #1. Would you please clarify?

White papers submitted will be judged in part in how relevant they are to PHMSA’s mission as it’s defined in the BAA. White papers that do not align with the research topics will be rated accordingly.

10.

Section 5, Page For IMPROVING SAFETY, there are five research topic areas listed; for INNOVATION, there are two research topic areas. Section 5.1 of the BAA states that the cover page of each white paper must contain the “BAA research topic area and reference number”; also, the header of each page must feature “the area of research”. For innovative ideas outside of the seven listed research topic areas, what do we put on the title page and in the header?

PHMSA expects all white papers to align to at least one of the research topics.

11.

N/A Is there an anticipated timeframe for when awards under this BAA will be made?

PHMSA anticipates issuing all awards resulting from this BAA by 09/30/2020.

12.

Attachment #1, Topic #5

Do we need to address the risk posed by certain classes of HAZMATs or do we need to include all classes?

It is up to the offerors to determine how best to address which classes of HAZMAT they choose to address in their white paper.

13.

Attachment #1, Topic #5

Do we need to include all modes of transport or certain modes preferred over other modes?

PHMSA has no preferred mode of transport under this topic. It is up to the offeror to determine which mode of transport(s) they choose to address in their white paper.

14.

Attachment #1, Topic #5

Does the use of machine learning/AI technologies along with probabilistic methods to quantify risk, align with the PHMSA’s vision to advance safe transportation of HAZMATs?

It is up to the offeror to determine a proposed approach that they think will most effectively address the problems outlined within the topics of this BAA.

15.

Attachment #1, Topic #5

In addition to risk assessment (risk quantification and consequence modeling), can concepts involving risk mitigation be also included in the white paper?

Note the topic states “Models developed should include recommendations to address or mitigate the safety gap raised and analyzed.”