Synopsis_DTFH6116R00023.pdf

Federal Highway Administration

Synopsis DTFH6116R00023

Title: Quality Assurance Essentials and Case Studies for Accelerated Bridge Construction

This synopsis is issued in accordance with FAR Part 5.203 in response to the mandatory requirement for a 15 day pre-solicitation notification. The purpose of this synopsis is to announce the Federal Highway Administration’s intent to issue a solicitation for a Full and Open

Competition to procure the services of an Offeror for the Quality Assurance Essentials and Case

Studies for Accelerated Bridge Construction requirement pursuant to FAR Part 19.2.

As a result of this solicitation, the FHWA intends to award one Firm Fixed Price Contract. The anticipated period of performance shall not exceed 27 months. The solicitation will be issued on or about June 15, 2016.

BACKGROUND

Today’s 21st century world is all about speed of getting tasks completed through accelerated delivery. This pace is now being translated to highway bridge construction for the 21st century.

Technology is the key to delivering highway bridge construction for this new century. The

Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) through Every Day Counts (EDC-2) promoted the technology of Accelerated Bridge Construction.

ABC is defined as bridge construction that uses innovative planning, design, materials, and construction methods in a safe and cost-effective manner to reduce the onsite construction time that occurs when building new bridges or replacing and rehabilitating existing bridges quickly.

Conventional construction methods involve onsite activities that are time consuming and weather dependent. Nevertheless, speed is the primary difference between ABC and conventional bridge construction, but ABC can introduce other unique challenges such as: shipping and handling of large/irregular prefabricated elements, special lifting/erecting and element “fit-up” in the field, all of which could have special QA requirements. There are three particular ABC technologies being promoted under EDC-2 which are: Prefabricated Bridge Elements and Systems (PBES), Slide-In Bridge Construction (SIBC), and Geosynthetic Reinforced Soil – Integrated Bridge

System (GRS-IBS). ABC is a paradigm shift in the project planning and procurement approach where the need to minimize mobility impacts which occur due to onsite construction activities are elevated to a higher priority. Conventional bridge construction is bridge construction that does not significantly reduce the onsite construction time that is needed to build, replace, or rehabilitate a single, or group of bridge projects. Further description of ABC can be found at:

Accelerated Bridge Construction - Experience in Design, Fabrication and Erection of

Prefabricated Bridge Elements and Systems, FHWA HIF-12-013, http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/bridge/abc/docs/abcmanual.pdf)

ABC intrinsic benefits can include site constructability, total project delivery time, material quality and product durability, and work-zone safety for the traveling public and contractor http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/bridge/abc/docs/abcmanual.pdf personnel. As related to ABC precast concrete elements a review conducted by the United States

Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General (US DOT OIG) identified issues with precast concrete producers not providing non-structural precast concrete elements with the proper amount of reinforcing steel in compliance with State specifications. In response to these investigations, the FHWA Headquarters surveyed its Division Offices. The intent was to determine what activities are included in the acceptance processes of States for nonstructural precast concrete elements. The results showed that very few States provided full-time plant inspection for the production of nonstructural precast concrete elements, and had varying frequencies of inspection from periodic to none. As a result, FHWA conducted a National review on nonstructural precast concrete elements; one of the principal recommendations from this review was to assist SHAs in the development of a comprehensive approach to manage the construction oversight and acceptance processes of nonstructural precast concrete elements and on different classifications of precast concrete elements. Thus, research is currently being conducted by FHWA to develop a manual on the non-destructive testing (NDT) on precast concrete elements. This research may be helpful for inspection of “structural” precast concrete elements for ABC utilization of precast concrete plants. With respect to precast concrete elements, the focus of this project is not the question of whether current QA practices for ABC

“structural” precast concrete elements are insufficient, but rather there is a need to better understand how QA is applied and exercised in the rapid assembly or installation of precast concrete elements.

http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/pavement/materials/hif13045.pdf http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/pavement/materials/program_review.pdf

Development of a Manual using Non-destructive Testing and Case Studies on Precast

Concrete Elements in Highway Construction, (FHWA) DTFH61-14-D-00009.

OBJECTIVE

The overall objective is to determine the effectiveness of State Highway Agencies (SHA) QA practices utilized on ABC projects. A thorough literature review of states QA practices for bridge construction projects shall be included. A minimum of 5 case studies with each case study consist of an individual project with varying levels of complexities and located in different regional geographical area of the United States will be documented to illustrate the effectiveness, best practices and/or issues of the existing Quality Assurance practices utilized on

ABC projects. The effective practices are those in place to reduce the risk of non-specification material in and high quality proper installation and “fit up” processes for structural precast concrete elements. From the documented case studies the contractor shall develop a QA guidance document to assist highway agencies in developing a more robust inspection and acceptance programs for ABC projects. In addition, to this QA guidance document the contractor shall develop an ABC Visual-aid inspection manual similar to the Long Term Pavement

Performance (LTPP) Pavement Distress Identification Manual;

http://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/shrp/SHRP-P-338.pdf http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/pavement/materials/hif13045.pdf http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/pavement/materials/program_review.pdf http://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/shrp/SHRP-P-338.pdf

DETAILS

The solicitation will be released electronically via this Government Point of Entry (GPE) otherwise known as Federal Business Opportunities or www.fbo.gov. As such, no written, telephonic or other type of request for an advance copy of the solicitation will be entertained at this time. Potential Offerors are encouraged to register on www.fbo.gov to receive any further information in reference to the subject action inclusive of any announcements, and/or amendments to the solicitation after its release.

This requirement is full and open competition pursuant to NAICS code 541330. Any questions regarding this synopsis should be directed to Tamiko Aikens, Contract Specialist, via email at tamiko.aikens@dot.gov.

http://www.fbo.gov/ http://www.fbo.gov/ mailto:tamiko.aikens@dot.gov