Amend 4 Attachment.pdf

Road, Bridge and Structure Work RFP AG-05G1-S-09-0010 Colville National Forest Amendment 4 Page 1

Section B, Page 3:

Insert the following paragraphs after the paragraphs listed under Contract Performance on page 3 of the solicitation.

“Annually, during the months of November and December, Contractors wishing to terminate their contract may do so in writing. The request should include the reason the Contractor wishes to terminate the contract. There will be no penalty to the Contractor for such a termination.

Such termination will not affect existing incomplete task orders. The terminating Contractor shall still be expected to complete those task orders in accordance with the terms and conditions of this contract and those detailed in the task order.

The Government may advertise for additional Contractors to add to this contract if in its judgment it is necessary to maintain an effective competitive pool of Contractors capable of meeting the designated workload covered by this contract.”

Section C

Scope of Contract, Page 5:

The Curlew Civilian Conservation Center is added to the locations of this contract. Therefore, work may be performed at any location within the Colville National Forest and Curlew Civilian Conservation Center.

Section C, Page 6, add the following to Road Maintenance: Spot Surfacing; Culvert Removal or Installation; Seeding; Mulching; Ripping; Sign Repair, Installation or Removal; Gate Repair or Installation or Removal; Cattleguard Repair, Installation or Removal; Drivable Drain Dip Installation; Road Closure Berm; Recontouring; Outslope; Embankment Pullback, and Drivable Drain Dip Installation.

Section J. Page 47

Example Project C is incorporated into the solicitation. Offerors shall insert their prices on the example form enclosed with their business proposal.

Wage Determination 1977-0209, Revision No. 37, is hereby incorporated into the solicitation.

Offerors shall use this Determination in pricing the service project for Example Project C.

Colville National Forest Amendment 4 Page 2

Section L

Pages 74 through 77: Replace AGAR 452.215-71 with the following revised clause:

AGAR 452.215-71 Instructions for the Preparation of Technical and Business Proposals

(SEP 1999)

A. General Instructions. Proposals submitted in response to this solicitation shall be furnished in the following format with the numbers of copies as specified below.

The proposal must include a technical proposal and business proposal. Each of the parts shall be separate and complete so that evaluation of one may be accomplished independently from evaluation of the other. The technical proposal must not contain reference to cost; however, resource information (such as data concerning labor hours and categories, materials, subcontracts, etc.) must be contained in the technical proposal so that the Contractor's understanding of the statement of work may be evaluated.

The Government will evaluate proposals in accordance with the evaluation criteria set forth in Section M of this Request for Proposal.

Offerors shall submit their proposal(s) in the following format and the quantities specified:

One (1) original completed signed offer (Sections A [SF 1442], Section B, and Section K of the solicitation package).

Section A - Complete blocks 14, 15, 16, 17, 19, 20A, 20B, and 20C, of the RFP Section A, SF 1442. In doing so, the offeror accedes to the contract terms and conditions as written in the RFP. These sections constitute the model contract.

Section B - Complete the Identification of Contractor’s Availability and Interest Statement.

Section K - Complete the necessary fill-ins and certifications in the Representations and Certifications. The offeror shall submit only those pages that require a fill-in in the remaining solicitation package.

One (1) original and three (3) copies of the technical proposal including the Experience Questionnaire which is attached to Section K.

One (1) original and three (3) copies of the business/cost proposal.

B. Technical Proposal Instructions. The technical proposal will be used to make an evaluation and arrive at a determination as to whether the proposal will meet the requirements of the Government. Therefore, the technical proposal must present sufficient information to reflect a

Colville National Forest Amendment 4 Page 3 thorough understanding of the requirements and a detailed, description of the techniques, procedures and program for achieving the objectives of the specifications/statement of work.

Proposals which merely paraphrase the requirements of the Government's specifications/statement of work, or use such phrases as "will comply" or "standard techniques will be employed" will be considered unacceptable and will not be considered further. Failure to provide this information may result in a complete rejection of your offer and not considered. As a minimum, the proposal must provide adequate information in the form of a brief narrative on each of the evaluation factors described in Section M that clearly demonstrates ability to perform the required work satisfactorily. Offerors must provide the following:

1. Past Performance: The offeror shall provide specific information of recent relevant contracts which support performance over the past three years and provide current references who can confirm your past performance. Past performance will be evaluated by Government contacting a sample of customers from the listing of past projects, review of past performance surveys received and any other source available.

The offeror shall prepare and send Past Performance Survey Forms to previous customers. The offeror shall include the name of their company at the top of each page provided in Section K.

Confidentially is critical so all surveys shall be marked “Source Selection Sensitive” and are to be returned by email or mailed directly to the Contracting Officer no later than due date of the solicitation.

For those contracts with less than positive performance, you are encouraged to provide a description of the problems and the efforts made to correct and to prevent future occurrences.

For each relevant contract or reference, the offeror is requested to provide:

Agency/Company and current point of contact and telephone number Period of performance Dollar value of contract Contract number and type Subcontractors used (If Any)

The Experience Questionnaire which is attached to Section K may be used as the submittal format.

2. Technical: The offeror should provide at a minimum:

(a) Project Management Provide information for company resources that will be used for the satisfactory performance of the work as outlined in the Scope of Work.

1. Personnel (Negotiator, Individual with authority to obligate the company, Project Manager, Superintendent and Quality Control Officer): Identify name, title or role, of key personnel that will work on projects awarded under the contract(s). Provide qualifications of individuals including special education, experience, training, certifications, etc.

Colville National Forest Amendment 4 Page 4

2. Equipment: Identify equipment that is available including type, size, specialized accessories, etc.

3. Potential Subcontractors and Material Suppliers: List types of work that will be subcontracted and potential subcontractors (including any engineering or testing subcontractors). List commonly used supply sources for culverts, steel, concrete, pre-stressed concrete members, timber, or other major supply items.

4. Organizational Structure and Contract Management: Describe the organizational structure and contract management to be used to manage the overall implementation of the contract with multiple on-going task orders including major material suppliers and subcontractors.

5. Knowledge and Understanding of Geographical Area: Identify the location of the company and geographic range of past work and the company’s ability to respond to task orders of the various National Forests in the Washington, Oregon and Idaho in a timely, cost-effective manner. Describe company’s general knowledge of the geographical area of the Colville National Forest Service and demonstrated knowledge of potential work conditions, construction methods, materials, suppliers, access, etc.

(b) Technical Approach

1. For Project A, Growden Energy Dissipater.

a. Submit:your Technical Approach for this project.

b. Submit your Blasting Methods for this project.

c. Submit your expected schedule including sequence of work and approximate time to complete the project.

2. For Project B, Vulcan Road Reconstruction.

a. Submit your Technical Approach for this project.

b. Submit your expected schedule including sequence of work and approximate time to complete the project. Submit your completion date.

c. List your experience in reconstruction of Forest Service roads.

(c ) Quality Control Plan describing how the contractor shall ensure quality of workmanship and materials, and communication between Forest Service and the contractor (i.e.

proposed progress meetings and reports).

Colville National Forest Amendment 4 Page 5

(d) Safety Plan. Past contracts were completed with no accidents recorded. Contractor and all subcontractors were working in accordance with established Safety Plan and/or within OSHA Standards.

3. Business Proposal: The offeror shall provide a minimum.

(a) For Project A, Growden Energy Dissipater:

1). Task Order Form: SF-18. Complete Blocks 5, 12 and 13.

2). Price Proposal. Provide your pricing on the Schedule of Items (Page 2). Enter a price for all sub-items.

(b) For Project B, Vulcan Road Reconstruction:

1). Task Order Form: Complete Page 1 of Project B.

2). Price Proposal. Provide your pricing on the Schedule of Items (Pages 2 through 23). Enter a price for all sub-items.

3) Provide a bid guarantee of 20% of your total price.

(c) For Example Project C, Various Road Work Single Prices.

1). Complete the Schedule of Items for various road work for Example Project C.

(c) Bonding Capacity: Construction projects over $30,000 require a payment bond or alternative payment protection. Construction projects over $100,000 require both payment and performance bonds. Bonds are held throughout the warranty period which is normally 1 year after acceptance of work. The Offeror shall have their bonding agent identifying the Contractor ability to obtain Bid, Performance and Payment bonds. This information also includes the available per-project and aggregate bonding capacity. The Offeror shall submit a letter or other signed written document from bonding agent.

Colville National Forest Amendment 4 Page 6

Section M is Replaced with the following:

SECTION M--EVALUATION FACTORS FOR AWARD

FAR 52.252-1 Solicitation Provisions Incorporated by Reference (FEB 1998)

This solicitation incorporates one or more solicitation provisions by reference, with the same force and effect as if they were given in full text. Upon request, the Contracting Officer will make their full text available. The offeror is cautioned that the listed provisions may include blocks that must be completed by the offeror and submitted with its quotation or offer. In lieu of submitting the full text of those provisions, the offeror may identify the provision by paragraph identifier and provide the appropriate information with its quotation or offer. Also, the full text of a solicitation provision may be accessed electronically at this/these address(es):

www.arnet.gov/far/ www.usda.gov/procurement/policy/agar.html

FEDERAL ACQUISITION REGULATION (48 CFR CHAPTER 1)

52.217-5 Evaluation Exclusive of Options (APR 1984)

HUBZone Set-Aside

This procurement is a total HUBZone Set-Aside as described in Section I, FAR Clause 52.219- 3, Notice of Total HUBZone Set-Aside. By submission of your offer in accordance with the instructions provided in Section L, the offeror accedes to the terms of this solicitation/contract.

For information regarding HUBZone certification and registration go to the Small Business Administration website at http://www.sba.gov/hubzone.

Basis of Award and Evaluation of Offers

The Government intends to evaluate proposals and award multiple contracts without discussions with Offerors (except for clarification as described in FAR 15.306(a)). Proposals should be submitted initially on the most favorable terms, from a business and technical standpoint.

The intent of the solicitation is to be able to provide sufficient contracts that can accommodate the full array of projects that could develop within the scope. The Government is currently estimating three to five awards.

Award will be made to offerors (1) whose proposal meets the technical requirements of the solicitation and (2) whose technical/cost relationship is the most advantageous to the Government.

In conjunction with the basic contract awards, the Government intends to award Projects A and B contained within the solicitation package.

Colville National Forest Amendment 4 Page 7

The critical factor in making any cost/technical trade-off is not the spread between the technical ratings but, rather, the significance of that difference. The significance of the spread of the ratings will be determined on the basis of what the difference might mean in terms of performance and what it would cost the Government to take advantage of it. Award may not necessarily be made for technical capabilities that would appear to exceed those needed for the successful performance of the work. The Government reserves the right to make cost/technical trade-offs that are in the best interest and advantageous to the Government.

The Government may reject any or all offer(s), issue orders to other than the lowest offer, and waive minor informalities or irregularities in offers received, or elect to not award at all. If necessary, the Government may conduct discussions with offerors in the competitive range. The Government may also award the contract on the basis of offerors received, without entering into discussions with any offeror(s). Therefore, each initial offer should contain the offeror's best terms and must speak directly to the evaluation factors listed.

Each proposal received will be carefully considered and all information submitted will be kept in strict confidence within legal constraints.

This request for proposals does not commit the Government to pay any costs incurred in the preparation of the submission of proposals.

Unbalanced Offer: An offer is materially unbalanced when it is based on prices significantly less than the cost for some work and prices which are significantly overstated in relation to cost for other work, and if there is reasonable doubt that the offer will result in the lowest overall cost to the Government even though it may be the lowest evaluated offer, or it is so unbalanced as to be tantamount to allowing an advance payment. An offer that has been determined to be unbalanced shall be less favorable to the Government than a balanced offer.

Technical portion of the proposal is equal to Past Performance and when combined, they are approximately equal to the Business Proposal.

Technical Evaluation Factors: Each offeror’s technical proposal will be evaluated and assigned a color rating for each factor and subfactor. Each factor and subfactor will be given a color rating for blue, green, yellow, or red, as described below for each of the required evaluation areas:

(a) Rating & Description:

BLUE (Exceeds) – The proposal is very comprehensive, in-depth, clear and uniformly outstanding in quality. Consistently high quality performance can be expected. The proposal, as written, exceeds requirements and demonstrates an exceptional understanding of goals and objectives of the acquisition. One or more major strengths exist. No significant weaknesses exist.

GREEN (Acceptable) – The proposal meets all minimum requirements and generally is of high quality. Proposal demonstrates an acceptable understanding of goals and objectives of the

Colville National Forest Amendment 4 Page 8 acquisition. There may be both strengths and weaknesses, but the strengths outweigh the weaknesses. Deficiencies are minor and easily corrected. Proposal is acceptable as written.

Satisfactory performance can be expected.

YELLOW (Marginal) – The proposal fails to meet minimum requirements. Proposal demonstrates a fair understanding of the goals and objectives of the acquisition. Weaknesses outbalance any strengths that exist. Weaknesses will be difficult to correct and would require negotiations.

RED (Unacceptable) – The proposal fails to meet minimum requirements. Proposal fails to meet an understanding of the goals and objectives of the acquisition. The proposal has one or more significant weaknesses that will be very difficult or impossible to correct. Major proposal revision(s) are required for minimum acceptability.

(b) Technical Evaluation Factors:

Factor 1 – Past Performance: The offeror will be evaluated on performance over the past three years relative to experience on similar projects and types of work. In accordance with FAR 15.305, in the case of an offeror without a record of relevant past performance or for whom information on past performance is not available, the offeror will not be evaluated either favorably or unfavorably in this area, but instead will receive a neutral rating in the area of past performance. Past performance sub-criteria include:

• Experience on projects similar in scope and complexity to the proposed project;

• Efficiency and effectiveness on past projects;

• Whether the firm’s performance conformed to the terms and conditions of their contract;

• How reasonable and cooperative the firm was during performance; and,

• Firm’s commitment to customer satisfaction.

All sub-factors are of equal importance.

Factor 2 – Technical: The offeror will be evaluated on project management criteria. The technical submittal shall be incorporated by reference and become a binding part of the resulting contract. This criteria is comprises of the offeror’s:

• Project Management Personnel Equipment Potential Subcontracts and material suppliers Organization Structure and Contract Management Knowledge and Understanding of Geographical Area.

• Technical Approach on Project A and Project B

For Project A:

Technical approach

Colville National Forest Amendment 4 Page 9

Blasting Methods for this project Expected Schedule including sequence of work and approximate time to complete the project. Government may give more weight on proposals state they will complete the job by June 12, 2009.

For Project B:

Technical approach.

Expected Schedule including sequence of work and approximate time to complete the project. Government may give more weight to proposals who state they will complete the project early in the working season. The latest delivery date the Government will accept is October 31, 2009.

• Quality control plan and how it will be maintained to ensure a quality product is delivered.

• Safety plan and how it will be implemented throughout the life of the project.

Sub-factors Quality Control and Safety Plan are of equal importance. Sub-factor Project Management and Technical Approach are of equal importance. Project Management and Technical Approach is more important than Quality Control and Safety Plan sub-factors when combined.

Note: Technical approach includes Evidence of understanding the project requirements:

understanding the resources needed to carry out the project; Project coordination including plans for communication between Forest Service, Contractor, and Subcontractors, management of working relationships, and effectiveness of communication plan; Proposed construction schedule and its realism and Other resources planned for use on the project.

Factor 3 – Business Proposal: The offeror will be evaluated based on his/her response to the Business Proposals along with bonding capacities. Business Proposal sub-criteria include:

• Pricing for Project A

• Pricing for Project B

• Pricing for Project C

• Bonding for Project B (Go and No Go Factor for this project)

• Bonding Capacity

Pricing: It is the Government intent to determine reasonableness and the offeror’s understanding of the work and the ability to perform the contract.

All subfactors are of equal importance. However, f the Contractor does not provide a bid guarantee for Project B, a task order will not be place to that firm.