Redacted J A- Signed.pdf

General Services Administration Public Building Services, Region 4

Acquisition Division, 4PQAC

Justification for an Exception to Fair Opportunity Sam Gibbons Courthouse CMa for Davit Reapir and Water Intrusion Repair Project

GS-00P-10-CY-D-0126 Jacobs Program Management Group, Inc.

In accordance with FAR 16.505(b)(2) Exceptions to the Fair Opportunity Process, I offer the following:

1. This task order is to provide continuing Construction Manager as Agent (CMa) services for the Water Intrusion Repair Project, which also includes the davit repair/replacement program, as well as the design build Fire Stopping project, at the Sam Gibbons Federal Courthouse in Tampa, Florida.

2. Jacobs will provide design review, construction management and construction inspection services to complete the Water Intrusion Prevention / Roofing Project which includes the Davit Repair program and the Firestopping repair/replacement project. The CMa will provide Project Preplanning, Design Review, Procurement Support, Construction Management, Inspection/Testing Services, and Project Closeout services. The Government has prepared an Independent Government Estimate dated 5/15/2012 which estimates the cost of these services to be $327,330.

3. This exception to Fair Opportunity falls under 16.505(b)(2)(i)(a), supplies or services is so urgent that providing a fair opportunity would result in unacceptable

The water intrusion project and the associated davit repairs as well as completion of the firestopping project are extremely urgent, and providing fair opportunity would result in unacceptable delays based on based on the following:

On August 16th, 2011 Jacobs was serving as CMa for the Water Intrusion project under a separate task order when the design-build contractor (ARI) was performing work that utilized the davit base and arms on the 400ft high Sam Gibbons Courthouse, when one of the davit bases separated, thus creating a significant life safety issue. Davit bases are concrete piers installed on the roof of a high-rise building to support davit arms, which in turn are used to suspend swing stages that allow workers to perform exterior work on the building such as repairs, maintenance, and window washing. Throughout the performance of this contract, ARI and Jacobs (CMa) frequently used the davit bases and arms to complete the repair work and required inspections on a daily basis. Upon noticing the separation of the davit base, ARI and Jacobs immediately

ARI and Jacobs to stop all use of the davits until further notice. Fortunately, no one was injured ough workers were using other davits at the time. GSA then initiated an investigation to determine the cause and the extent of the damage.

The responsible for the original construction of the davit bases, did not properly install the required number of rebar in the davit base that failed. The original as-slab was first poured. Instead, however, it appears the GC used half the number of rebar and epoxied straight rebar into the slab edge at a depth of 2-2 ½ inches, much shorter than indicated on the as-built drawings. There are 59 davit bases on the building, and after this incident, all must be confirmed safe in order for water intrusion project to be completed.

At the time this condition was discovered, GSA was already involved in a significant claim n and other defects stemming from the construction of the building. On the advice of counsel, GSA contacted the original GC, placed them on notice of the issue, and offered them the opportunity to visit the site and to perform their own investigation. The original GC assembled a team of engineers and contractors and arrived on site to investigate. The original GC attempted to use ground-penetrating radar (GPR) to determine the number of rebar in the remaining davit base and found that at least some of the 58 remaining davit bases did not contain all the rebar required. Devising a testing protocol that would adequately ensure the soundness of all the remaining davits was and remains virtually impossible due to the location of the davit bases and due the addition of a brand new million dollar IRMA roof to the building last year that essentially buried 90% of the davit bases. It is was therefore concluded that there was no way to test davit bases without destroying them, which is very costly, would require a complete rebuild, and would require penetrating the brand new roof in over 50 locations, most likely voiding the existing 20 year roof warranty. The original GC then offered, without admitting liability, to institute a retrofit program that would be implemented with the assumption that the current davit bases offered no structural support.

After The August 16th incident necessarily shut down all exterior project work that required use of the davit bases. Thereafter, ARI proceeded to complete all of the work they could inside the building and via scaffolding. On September 16, ARI notified GSA that they had essentially completed all work that could be completed without using the davits. Because of this GSA had to issue suspension of work notices to both ARI and Jacobs until the davits were repaired.

s request, the GC proceeded to design a retrofit program for the davits. The design of this retrofit program lasted from approx mid- September 2011 until early January 2012 when the final design was reviewed and found acceptable to GSA. GSA and the GC devoted significant time and effort during the design, working with the roofing manufacture, to ensure the retrofit program could be designed and implemented in such a way as to ensure the roof warranty would be protected. The completed design package was turned over by the GC to GSA, and GSA has retained ARI to perform the davit retrofit program. ARI was issued a Notice to Proceed on 5/7/2012.

After the August 16th incident necessarily shut down all exterior project work that required use of the davit bases, ARI proceeded to complete all of the work they could inside the building and via scaffolding. On September 16, ARI notified GSA that they had essentially completed all work that could be completed without using the davits. Because of this GSA had to issue suspension of work notices to both ARI and Jacobs until the davits were repaired.

Coincidentally, a few days after the final design was submitted to GSA, and before construction could begin, in early January 2012, GSA and the original GC were involved in mediation to resolve other claims. As part of the settlement reached in that mediation, the parties agreed that the original GC would turn over the completed design package to GSA and GSA would take on the construction of the davit retrofit program itself. GSA then negotiated a contract modification with ARI to perform the davit retrofit program and complete the water intrusion project. So far the completion of the water intrusion and firestopping projects have been delayed eight months at significant cost to the Government. ARI has recently been issued a Notice to Proceed with repair/replacing the davits on the building and completing the water intrusion work. In addition the Government is currently in the process of negotiating a modification to extend the period of performance for the firestopping project and associated delay costs and anticipates reaching agreement soon.

Because of the nature of this work, and the life safety implications, prudence and in some aspects relevant building codes, require GSA to have an onsite inspector monitoring performance under both contracts to ensure and verify the solutions are being installed correctly and in accordance with the design build contracts. If GSA was to delay both projects further in order adequately compete the continuation of this CMa requirement, the delay costs to the Government would be significant and exceed any savings GSA could anticipate due to increased competition.

The Water Intrusion project has already incurred significant delays and needs to be completed as soon as possible to ensure the building is water tight and to minimize further delay and significant costs to the Government. In addition due to the davit failure delay, the firestopping replacement project has only been able to proceed on the inside of the building. Jacobs has been providing the CMa services on the Water Intrusion and Firestopping projects since the beginning and is intimately knowledgeable with the project, the tenants, and the overall operation of the building. Further suspending the Water Intrusion and Firestopping projectss in order to provide fair opportunity all IDIQ contract holders would cost the Government significantly more than it could reasonably anticipate saving from the increased competition.

4. To ensure the anticipated costs of these CMa services will be fair and reasonable, the Government will negotiate and compare hourly rates and level of effort to the base IDIQ

I hereby certify that this Justification for Exception to Fair Opportunity to be used for the above acquisition of the services necessary to support GSA, PBS, as described above, is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief and meets the exception listed in FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(a).

Cathal Duffy Date Contracting Officer êñêñîðïî