ConOps Mod Justification - Other than Full Open Competition.pdf

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

FEDERAL HIGHWAY ADMINISTRATION

JUSTIFICATION FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION

1. Identification of the agency and the contracting activity Federal Highway Administration Headquarters, Office of Acquisition and Grants Management, 1200 New Jersey Avenue, S.E., Washington, DC 20590.

2. Nature and/or description of the action being approved This justification and approval to use other than full and open competition (JOFOC) supports the award of a task order modification to DTFH6116D00052/693JJ319F000350, to modify Stakeholder Engagement Strategies under Tasks 3, 4 and 5 and adapt the Implementation Plan in Task 6. The modified work and budget will enable completion of a National Highway Automation Concept of Operations (ConOps) while mitigating schedule and budget impacts and implications of the pandemic.

3. Description of the supplies or services required to meet the agency’s needs (including the estimated value) The existing contractor (ICF Inc.) is currently completing technical and operational analysis to develop a national Roadway Automation ConOps under the task order 693JJ319F000350. The ConOps will describe the integration of Automated Driving System (ADS)-equipped vehicles – or automated vehicles (AVs) – into the roadway environment, including their interaction with roadway infrastructure and, at this initial stage of deployment, with non-automated traffic. The ConOps will serve as a basis for identifying future actions that roadway infrastructure owner-operators (IOOs) – a collective term encompassing state and local transportation agencies – will need to take in order to ready their organizations, physical assets and policy for the integration of AVs.

The ConOps is adopting an iterative approach, defining notional combinations of ADS applications and capabilities, roadway environments (e.g., functional classification), temporary roadway conditions (e.g., work zones, severe weather conditions), and geographic contexts (e.g., urban or rural, inter-metropolitan corridor, statewide network, megaregional and multistate corridor, transcontinental corridor, and national network).

Collectively, the roadway environments, roadway and environmental conditions, and geographic contexts also describe the relevant operational design domain – or ODD – of the ADS as defined by SAE International in Standard J3016. The ConOps will constitute one component of a broader Roadway Automation Integration Readiness Strategy under development by FHWA. It will provide a context and basis for planning, developing, and deploying resources to support State and local agencies as they prepare their infrastructure, organizational capacity, and policies for the integration of automation. The total value of this task order, with the addition of the required work valued at $350,000, will increase from $900,000 to $1,250,000, to be expended over a total period of performance of 30 months. The requested modification will extend the current 24 month period of performance by 6 months to 30 months. This modification will allow ICF to define and apply organizational and roadway infrastructure “integration paths”.

These integration paths will establish prototypical approaches for applying the ConOps methodology within specific types of agencies, communities and transportation system settings.

4. Statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition

The authority to execute a modification for this effort without full and open competition is FAR 16.505(b)(2)(C):The order must be issued on a sole-source basis in the interest of economy and efficiency because it is a logical follow-on to a task order already issued under the contract, provided that all awardees were given a fair opportunity to be considered for the original order.

5. Demonstration that the proposed contractor’s unique qualifications or the nature of the acquisition requires use of the authority cited

Their current work on the task order makes ICF uniquely qualified to complete the task order within the agency time and budget requirements. This work will summarize the work currently being done by the contractor and is a logical follow-on to the current task order.

The discussions that have taken place during project calls, meetings and reviews over the past year between FHWA and ICF have been essential to understanding the stakeholder engagement strategies and fundamental issues associated with development of Highway Automation ConOps. Project work already completed and to be completed through the existing (unmodified) task order encompasses active relationships between ICF and specific state and local agencies, as well as strategically relevant national organizations (e.g. ITS America, American Association of State Highway & Transportation Officials, Institute of Transportation Engineers, etc.). It will be most cost-effective for ICF to continue and adapt further collaboration and stakeholder engagement within these existing project-specific relationships over the past year and a half, rather than trying to re-creating these existing collaborative relationships with an alternative contractor and re-doing existing andcommitted project deliverables. Therefore, bringing on a new contractor to finish the task work or re-competing the task order would be inefficient, more costly and require significant lead time to revisit and repeat the work that has already been completed.

6. Description of efforts made to ensure that offers are solicited from as many potential sources as is practicable, including whether a notice was or will be publicized

This original task order was issued in accordance with the terms and conditions of an existing FHWA multiple award IDIQ contract. All IDIQ contractors were given a fair opportunity to be considered for the original task order award. The qualifications of Booze Allen Hamiliton (BAH), Cambridge Systematics, Leidos and ICF were evaluated to determine the efficiency of their proposed approach to meeting the government’s requirements. ICF, the current contractor/task order awardee, was selected through this competitive process as the most qualified to perform all aspect of this task order.

Approaches presented by BAH, Cambridge Systematics and Leidos did not meet agency needs and significantly departed from the approach taken by the selected contractor, which was determined to be the most cost efficient and viable.

A notice of the JOFOC will be posted to beta.SAM.gov once modification award has been made.

7. Determination by the Contracting Officer that the anticipated cost to the Government will be fair and reasonable

The FHWA will ensure that all costs associated with the proposed contract are fair and reasonable. The FHWA will perform a thorough analysis of the Offeror’s proposal to substantiate this determination. The Contracting Officer will also compare any labor rates proposed by ICF to those negotiated and accepted for use on the task order and to those in their base Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract.

8. Description of the market research conducted and the results or a statement of the reason market research was not conducted

Market Research was not conducted for the proposed modification. The solicitation for the original task order was issued in accordance with the terms and conditions of an existing FHWA’s multiple award IDIQ. As stated in Item 6 of this notice, all four multiple award IDIQ contract holders were given a fair opportunity to be considered for the original task order award. ICF was selected through this competitive process as the most qualified contractor to perform all aspects of this task order.Based on these facts, the addition of work within scope of the current task order, which will expand on the existing effort, does not lend itself to conducting market research to seek a different, multiple award IDIQ contract holder.

9. Other facts supporting the use of other than full and open competition Their current work on the task order makes the contractor uniquely qualified to complete the task order within the agency time and budget requirements. This work will summarize the work currently being done by the contractor and is a natural progression of the work being preformed under the current task order. FHWA and its stakeholders will receive additional value with the application of the ConOps methodology within specific types of agencies, communities and transportation system settings.

10. Listing of the sources, if any, that expressed, in writing, an interest in the acquisition.

N/A

11. Statement of the actions, if any, the agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers to competition before any subsequent acquisition for the supplies or services required.

The solicitation for the original task order was issued in accordance with the terms and conditions of a FHWA multiple award IDIQ contract. All four IDIQ contractors were given a fair opportunity to be considered for the original task order award. It is anticipated that once this task order work has been completed, future efforts for Highway Automation Concept of Operations will be competed via a new competitive task order.

12. Certification

I certify that the information provided in this justification is complete and accurate to the best of my knowledge and belief.

John Corbin Date

Task Order Contracting Officer’s Representative

Amalia Rodezno Date Contracting Officer

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09/17/2020

John M. Corbin Digitally signed by John M. Corbin Date: 2020.09.17 17:14:18 -05'00'

Approvals Signature Page

Based upon the preceding information, I hereby recommend approval of this Justification for Other than Full and Open Competition to award a contract to insert name of vendor for insert very brief description of activities.

(Remove signature blocks as needed to indicate appropriate approval level in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation 6.304)

Approval levels:

Not exceeding $700,000 – Contracting Officer

Task Order Contracting Officer’s Representative Date Office of Operations

Contracting Officer Date Office of Acquisition and Grants Management

Attorney Advisor Date Office of Chief Counsel

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09/17/2020