QuestionsAnswers.docx

Green Mountain National Forest Service North Half Road Maintenance

AG-24H8-S-14-0007

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

1) The wage determinations for this project only includes Forestry and Land Management Services although the project description talks about grading, ditching, culvert cleaning, etc. Please advise. As this is a maintenance project and not a construction project, we are using Service Contract Act wage rates and not Davis Bacon. No certified payrolls are required. The SCA wage determination is attached to the solicitation on www.fbo.gov. Section J of the OfferorsCopy document shows the SCA wage determination to be 1981-0213 dated 8/22/13. It’s a separate attachment on fbo called SCAWageDetermination.pdf. The heavy equipment operator would be the required wage for the grader operator and the general forestry laborer would be for the culvert cleaners and other non-equipment operators.

2) I see in Section 52.222-42 it references wage rate and it says “This statement is for information only: it is not a wage determination”. So what is the actual wage determination for the two positions you mention? Clause 222-42 only says what the government would pay service workers if we hired our own employees to do the work. Contractor employees on the project must be paid in accordance with the SCA wage determination. See Answer 1.

3) Will the Forest Service have us do all the work in one area before moving on to the next? Will the plan of work be systematic? Send in a crew to cut trees, clean culverts, do the ditching and then grade in an area. The Forest Service typically gives the contractor a list of roads and work to be done on each of those roads. The schedule basically consists of an end date and the contractor decides the schedule of when and what to complete. As long as everything is completed by the end date, we normally don’t care which order.

4) How many times do you think we will have to wash the equipment? Equipment should be pressure washed before beginning but can be hand cleaned with broom between roads.