AG-0116-S-13-0003_Phase_One_Solicitation.pdf

United States Department of Agriculture

Forest Service Alaska Region

Tongass National Forest 648 Mission Street Ketchikan, Alaska 99901

Caring for the Land and Serving People

File Code: 6320 Date: April 1, 2013

To: All Prospective Offerors Solicitation AG-0116-S-13-0003, Phase One Yakutat Employee Housing Design-Build

PHASE ONE SOLICITATION

This is a letter solicitation for Phase One proposals for the Yakutat Employee Housing Design-Build project. This acquisition is conducted under FAR Subpart 36.3, Two-Phase Design-Build Selection Procedures. This letter solicitation is for Phase One and will result in the selection of up to four of the most highly qualified offerors, who will be invited to submit Phase Two proposals. All parties interested in this project as a prime contractor must submit Phase One proposals in response to this letter solicitation so as to be received by the contracting officer by 3:00pm Alaska Daylight Time on Thursday, May 2, 2013, at the address shown in the letterhead. Fax or e-mail proposals will not be accepted. Although Phase One is not subject to FAR Part 15, paragraph (c) of the standard solicitation provision at FAR 52.215-1, Instructions to Offerors—Competitive Proposals, is incorporated into this letter solicitation by reference. From the date of issuance of this Phase One letter solicitation to the announcement of the contract award at the end of Phase Two, all inquiries from interested parties must be directed to the contracting officer except as may otherwise be allowed by law or regulation. These inquiries should be on paper, mailed to the contracting officer at the address shown in the letterhead or fax’ed to (907) 228-6254, and clearly marked with the solicitation number and the project name.

The project is for the construction (and incidental preparatory design) of two or three three-bedroom single-family homes to be built in Yakutat, Alaska, including site preparation. The project was briefly described in a FedBizOpps pre-solicitation synopsis posted on March 13, 2013, using this same solicitation number AG-0116-S-13-0003. This project is a total small business set-aside; accordingly, the standard contract clause at FAR

AG-0116-S-13-0003, Phase One Yakutat Employee Housing Design Build

52.219-6, Notice of Total Small Business Set-Aside, is incorporated into this letter solicitation by reference and will be included in the future Phase Two solicitation and the resulting contract. The applicable NAICS code is 236115 New Single-Family Housing Construction (except Operative Builders), with a size standard of $33.5 Million. The standard contract clause at FAR 52.236-3, Site Investigation and Conditions Affecting the Work, is also incorporated into this letter solicitation by reference and will be included in the future Phase Two solicitation and the resulting contract.

The Phase Two solicitation and resulting contract will also include other standard FAR clauses and special contract requirements appropriate for the acquisition, as well as some clauses and special contract requirements drawn from the Army Corps of Engineers’ Guidance for Firm-Fixed-Price Design-Build Construction Contracts. Phase One does not include completed price proposals, but prospective offerors should be aware that we are seeking quality housing at an affordable price, not luxury housing.

We envision a single design that will be applied to all three houses, or mirror images or variations in aesthetic details. Site-built, modular, or pre-fabricated construction is acceptable; manufactured housing is not. The work also includes site preparation, including connecting to electric and water systems and installation of on-site wastewater treatment systems.

Three documents are attached to this letter solicitation for the benefit of prospective offerors: Yakutat Employee Housing Specifications, 142 pages;

Drawings entitled Yakutat Employee Housing / Site Utilities, 17 sheets; and Yakutat Employee Housing / Wastewater Design Document, 64 pages.

A Phase One proposal should be submitted in five (5) identical compact discs (CDs), each containing a single Adobe (.pdf) electronic file constituting the Phase One proposal. Each page in the file shall be formatted for 8½×11 inches in size. The proposal shall not exceed fifty (50) pages, including cover pages, cover letters, table of contents pages, section dividers, blank pages, and so forth – any proposal exceeding fifty pages will be rejected. Although any information anywhere in the proposal may be used for the evaluation of any of the evaluation criteria, we invite offerors to organize their proposals to match our Phase One evaluation criteria.

Phase One Evaluation Criteria Instructions to Offerors 1.

T ec hn ic al A pp ro ac h.

1.a. Site Development. Submit a conceptual site plan. Show building locations, orientations, site pedestrian and vehicular circulation, parking areas, roads, and pedestrian access points.

1.b. Water, Wastewater, and Environmental Protection.

Provide a narrative description and water and sanitary site plan.

Describe method of wastewater disposal from each house. In the drawings, show all existing water and sanitary sewer lines. Show the new water service lines for building service and fire flow from point of connection to existing. Show all necessary valves, hydrants, ground or elevated storage tanks, pump stations, etc. Show the building connection to the on-site treatment system. Show pipe sizes, manholes, lift stations, force main, septic tanks, oil/water separators, etc.

1.c. Architectural. Submit one or more single line schematic floor plans that effectively indicate to the Forest Service that the function, circulation, and life safety issues have been assessed and can be met by the proposed design. Provide an exterior elevation for each of the four sides of the house.

1.d. Structural. Provide a narrative, describing load and general design criteria and any unusual design circumstances. Discuss thermal and weather enclosure, durability, and constructability in this remote location.

1.e. Mechanical (Central Energy Systems).

Provide a narrative explaining proposed type of mechanical system, listing the major equipment and rough order-of-magnitude sizes.

2. Specialized Experience and Technical Competence.

Provide a narrative describing the offeror’s experience and competence in building homes in remote locations such as Yakutat and a summary of this project’s highest risks and the offeror’s approach to dealing with those risks. Photos, floorplans, elevations, and pricing information on identical or prior similar projects may be included.

3. Capability to Perform. Provide a narrative describing the offeror’s bonding capacity, Alaska business or specialty licenses, and a performance schedule addressing key milestones and associated dates (shown in days after notice to proceed) for a six-month performance schedule and a one-year performance schedule (assume a notice to proceed date of Sep. 3, 2013). Provide an approximation, in the form of a reasonable range of values, of the offeror’s price for each house depending on the shorter or longer performance schedule and depending on the number of houses actually awarded (two or three), along with the key assumptions used in the approximation.

4. Past Performance of the Offeror’s Team (including the architect-engineer and construction members).

Provide information on other projects done by the offeror’s team to give the Forest Service confidence that the offeror’s team will be successful in completing the contract, amenable to the contract’s terms (including price and schedule). Each referenced project should include the project name, location, price, contracting agency or organization, a point of contact at that agency or location, and the offeror team’s role in the project. Identify all major subcontractors.

Wherever an offeror’s approach conflicts with a specification or other requirement, the offeror’s proposal should identify its approach and the conflicting specification or other requirement. This will allow the Forest Service to consider amending the specification or other requirement before issuance of the Phase Two solicitation. If an offeror has an approach that it thinks has merit and will meet our needs, we do not want that offeror to no-bid solely because of such a conflict. The Forest Service may or may not see merit in the approach, and may or may not amend the specification or other requirement for Phase Two, but we want to invite all reasonable approaches for the Phase One evaluation.

The Phase One evaluation criteria are not weighted in any numerical manner. The Forest Service’s selection of the most highly qualified offerors will be based on its subjective evaluation of the criteria shown in the table above.

The Forest Service is not liable for any costs incurred by the offeror submitting a proposal in response to this letter solicitation.

The Phase Two solicitation will only be provided to the most highly qualified offerors selected in Phase One. It will be a traditional solicitation using the Standard Form 1442, and will be conducted using procedures of FAR Part 15. The evaluation criteria for Phase Two will be—

Design and Construction Schedule Housing Unit Design Housing Unit Engineering Management Approach Past Performance Price Site Engineering

The target ceiling for contract award for design and construction at the end of Phase Two is $800,000 for two houses (including site work) and $1,200,000 for three houses (including site work) based on the funds available for this project. This is not an inflexible ceiling, and the Forest Service may be able to award above the target ceiling if it can’t be met through competition or if the best value proposal costs a reasonable bit more than the target ceiling.

Prospective offerors are cautioned that courier delivery to Ketchikan is not always reliable. It will be prudent to arrange for a delivery date for your Phase One proposal before May 2, 2013.

Thank you for your interest in this project! I look forward to receiving your Phase One proposal. If you have questions, please ask sooner rather than later.

John Inman Contracting Officer

Attachments

1. Specifications, 142 pages

2. Site Utilities, 17 Sheets

3. Wastewater Design Document, 64 pages