V3351136_Sole_Source_Justification_Redacted.pdf

V220T.12 (01/15)

Procurement Request No. V3351136

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

OFFICE OF THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY

VOLPE NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS CENTER (VOLPE CENTER)

V335 Infrastructure Engineering and Deployment

SOLE SOURCE SAP JUSTIFICATION

Recommend that negotiations be conducted with National Railway Equipment Company (NREc) on a noncompetitive basis for award of a Purchase Order in an amount estimated to be . The supporting data for this recommendation are as follows:

A. Description of Supplies/Services.

The Volpe National Transportation Systems Center provides technical support to the US Army for their locomotive fleet. The US Army owns, maintains, and operates twenty-five (25) multi-engine generator-set (GenSet) N-ViroMotive™ road-switcher locomotives manufactured by NREc. Five of these locomotives located on four US Military installations require technical support that cannot be provided by the Army. The Army requires expert field service technician support, parts and components for these locomotives to bring these locomotives back to mission capable operating status.

The N-ViroMotive™ GenSet locomotive is a yard-switcher locomotive that utilizes technology innovations to reduce exhaust emissions, increase efficiency, and offers a number of operational and safety improvements over the Army owned conventional locomotives. The N-ViroMotive™ locomotives are the first new-built locomotive the Army has acquired in over fifty years. Because of this, the Army requires technical support and assistance with maintaining and troubleshooting these units until they can establish the experience and knowledge necessary for maintaining these locomotives on their own.

B. Market Research.

Market Research was not conducted for this effort as NREc (a registered small business) is the only manufacturer and supplier of N-ViroMotive™ locomotives and associated hardware and software utilized in these locomotives such as the required N-Compass data system, the CPU, and other associated parts and components, and only NREc has the capability to provide updated software and firmware for these locomotives.

It has been determined through communicating with NREc, that NREc is the only company that offers the full spectrum of maintenance on the N-ViroMotive locomotives because NREc has not authorized another company to sell or update products or components including software and firmware and training associated with the N-ViroMotive locomotives. Because of the highly complex characteristics of the N-ViroMotive locomotive, it would be cost prohibitive for another company to acquire compatible hardware and software to support the numerous versions of N-ViroMotive locomotives that the Army owns and operates. Also, tampering with the N-ViroMotive locomotives offers the potential to void active warranties.

C. Supporting Rationale.

(1) Sole Source: Only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements.

(a) The Army locomotives that require attention are N-ViroMotive™ GenSet locomotives that are only manufactured by NREc.

(b) Only NREc can fully support the Army’s entire fleet of N-ViroMotive™ locomotives with the quickest response time and least costly parts as they manufacture the parts and components and provide technical expertise for numerous N-ViroMotive locomotive owners and operators. Internal training from the advanced software and firmware programming to the standard operating characteristics unique to the N-ViroMotive™ model locomotives, NREc’s locomotive technicians are trained and have extensive knowledge and many years of experience supporting and maintaining the N-ViroMotive locomotives. The US Army owns four versions of this locomotive which is a result of the US EPA Tier emissions mandates over time and only NREc has the capability to support the entire fleet due to the engineering changes since some models date back to 2007.

(c) The N-ViroMotive™ locomotives require parts and components that are unique to the design and operation of these locomotives. The locomotive’s operating software and hardware (N-Force™) is only available from NREc.

V220T.12 (01/15)

Due to the complexities of the N-ViroMotive™ locomotives, the unique design parameters of the specialized components, proprietary operating software, the impact in terms of feasibility, time, and cost of educating another contractor to obtain the expertise and manufacturing capability to provide a compatible replacement, would be detrimental to the program and to U.S. Army operations that require fast and immediate support.

(d) NREc holds patents and copyrights to the N-ViroMotive™ locomotive design and operation and related systems.

NREc also protects secret manufacturing processes, trade secrets, and technical and proprietary data.

(e) The N-ViroMotive™ locomotive is a unique locomotive manufactured by one company (NREc). The work identified in the Performance Work Statement requires that support be conducted from N-ViroMotive locomotive experienced staff. Only someone experienced with the N-ViroMotive™ locomotive will be able to provide the essential troubleshooting, diagnosing and software required to repair and update the locomotives with current versions of software, firmware, and field modifications.

(f) Only NREc provides the software, firmware and associated parts for these locomotives which are required for the locomotive to function as designed. This is imperative to the ongoing operational status of the fleet. It would be cost prohibitive and would incur unacceptable delays for another vendor to provide an adequate electronics system or components compatible with the N-ViroMotive™ locomotives.

D. Required Signatures. The following signatures represent concurrence/approval of this justification: