Site_showing_Notes_and_attachments.pdf

August 5, 2014

Site Showing Notes Solicitation AG-2C31-S-14-0010 – Town of Westerlo, Albany County, NY

NRCS Attendees - Lauri Eipp, Contracting Officer, USDA-NRCS; David Walowsky, NRCS State Design Engineer; Dianna Stanton, District Conservationist, Albany/Rensselaer Counties.

Town of Westerlo – Richard Rapp, Town Supervisor; Ed Lawson, Deputy Supervisor; Bill Bichteman, Town Councilman and landowner of stream access.

List of contractors attached.

Work is being performed under the Emergency Watershed Protection Program under an agreement with the local Town whereby the Federal Government (NRCS) and the local Towns cost share for the work.

Resulting contract will be federal contract and NRCS will be making payment in full to the successful contractor.. Davis Bacon Wage Rates apply. Government’s tax exempt status, however, is not transferred to contractor. All bids should include applicable sales tax.

All permits have been acquired.

This is a firm fixed price, sealed bid. A formal bid opening will be held at the NRCS Office in Troy, 61 State Street, Troy, NY 12180 – see block 6 of the SF1442. A bid bond – 20% of bid – is required with bid. Bid opening is scheduled for August 19 – 11 a.m. All bids must be received at the location and time specified or they will not be considered. Payment and Performance bonds – 100% - will be required from successful contractor within 5 days after award.

Bidding on this project does not preclude you from participating in the quotes being requested for the 3 sites in Rensselaer County. Performance time on this project is 30 days, so if you get this and one or more of the others, we can work with you on start times so long as you can complete work in the stream within time allotted and before permit expires – 9/30/2014.

In order to be eligible for award, low bidder MUST be registered in the System for Award Management (SAM). Information sheet handed out - if you are not already registered, it is strongly suggested that this be started as soon as possible as the process of registration can take time. NRCS is expecting to award within 5 days of receiving bids. Successful offeror will then have 5 days to get in payment and performance bonds in. An offeror that is not already in registered and active in SAM and eligible for award will be rejected.

Registration in the SAM database is required and it is free.

Please pay special attention to Section H- Safety. OSHA standards are to be followed. The selected Contractor will need to submit a safety plan, commensurate with the work for review. It is required that a person certified in first aid be on site at all times. A preconstruction meeting will be held for each site to review safety plan, equipment, first aid certification, erosion and sediment control plan, dewatering plan, and traffic control plan

Other clauses to be aware of :

Unless successful offeror can present a hardship, invoices must be submitted electronically. See page 16 of the contract package.

VETS100 validation is required by any contractor who is awarded a contract over $100,000.

A contractor unable to attend the prebid meeting asked a question about being eligible to bid if they did not employ the designated amount of minority or female employees. The numbers stated in this clause (page 52) are goals and are stated in the percentage of total hours of employment and training that the Contractor should reasonably be able to achieve in each construction trade in which it has employees. Meeting or not meeting this goal does not affect your eligibility to bid. This clause requires you to adhere to the Equal Opportunity clause, and report subcontracts in excess of $10,000. In meeting the terms of the Equal Opportunity clause you should be able to well document your ability to meet or not meet the established goals.

Any Contractor awarded a federal contract (for construction or otherwise) in the amount of $10,000 or more must comply with the Equal Opportunity clause. You need to be able to demonstrate that you do not discriminate against any employee or applicant, and that you treat employees fairly and equitably, etc., that you have policy and procedures in place that deal with this. There are reporting requirement but only for firms that have 50 or more employees AND have a contract, subcontract or purchase order amounting to more than $50,000. Affirmative action requirements are detailed in the FAR clause 52.222-26 Equal Opportunity, which is not required to be provided in full text but is available at www.acquisiton.gov/far.

Affirmative Action is a common practice in today’s business. Contractors should feel comfortable in the fact that if they are not discriminating and are treating employees and applicants fairly and have policies and practices in place that support this they should not be worried about meeting the conditions of this clause. If a firm has no such policy or does discriminate against employees and/or applicants, or has unfair practices, then then should not participate in federal contracts. There is a requirement in item 8 of the EO clause that provides for the contracting agency or the local office of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to conduct on site compliance evaluations and investigate complaints.

Group then traveled to review site.

David Walowsky, NRCS Engineer, reviewed the drawings and specifications.

It is very important to carefully review Construction Specifications particularly the Items of Work and Construction details to see what is included in a bid item and the method of payment.

Minimum size of stone is 3’x3’x4’ for stacked rock. Upstream of County Rock work, stacked rock is 9ft in height. Below County Rock work, stacked rock is 12 ft in height.

Behind wall – non-woven geotextile and gravel filter (#2 stone), 6 to 1 front slope on stacked rock wall, no pinning unless you hit bedrock – which is not anticipated.

There is a recommendation in the items of work for a brand of woven geotextile, however, an approved equivalent may be used so long as it meets the minimum specifications and it is approved in advance. Minimum 15 days for submittal and approval.

http://www.acquisiton.gov/far

Permits have been obtained. States work in the dry. You may find that DEC reps from one region to another are more or less lenient on this. Regardless, bid to work in the dry.

Stream Stat Info:

Peak Flow – 25 year event is 1290 cfs

Peak Flow –100 year event is 1960 cfs

Bank Full Flow – 735 cfs

Bank Full Depth – 2.34 feet

Any trees to be removed will be flagged by NRCS in advance. No trees shall be removed to accommodate water control or without NRCS approval.

NRCS employees with stake out the site along with the contractor.

Class C compaction required – 4 pass minimum

Payment for rock rip rap is outlined in the Items of Work for Rock Riprap.

Access is from Switzkill Road – need to keep as close to the streambank as possible. Not necessary to put in access road unless conditions require.

NRCS will not approval or disapprove your source for rock. However, rocks will be evaluated to be sure that they are of minimum size and quality as called for in the Material Spec for Rock.

Crop damage – limit crop damage to what is absolutely necessary – field was planted with the knowledge that this work was being done and the risk of some damage.

Question was asked about the liability for any damage to the house/foundation because of the work. Negligence resulting in damage would, of course, be the responsibility of the Contractor.

However, the landowner has agreed to sign a waiver to limit liability for any damage that may occur to the foundation of the house due to proper performance of the work in accordance with the specifications by the Contractor. The town’s attorney will work with the landowner to provide this waiver prior to proceeding with work.