Q and A 24-R-R002.pdf

QUESTION

DATE

RECEIVED

PROSPECTIVE VENDOR'S QUESTION DATE OF REPLY GOVERNMENT'S RESPONSE AMEND RFQ?

1 15‐Dec‐23 Where is the various Army trainings for train crew and track inspectors going to be held at? The PWS says that the cost and burden will be on the contractor, but I need to know roughly where these training sessions will be held at so I can factor in that added cost to our bid/rates.

Track Inspector Qualifications ‐ DPW at MOTCO will coordinate scheduling the track inspector course at

MOTCO.

AR 56‐3 Rail Crew Qualification:

https://armypubs.army.mil/epubs/DR_pubs/DR_a/pdf/web/r56_3.pdf

a. All rail crewmembers will receive training in crew operations.

b. Initial hire of civilian or contractor personnel will be training via on the job and documented on a retained training record.

c. Within the first year, crewmembers will attend the 80‐hour Rail Crew Qualification Course at Fort Eustis. Those individuals who have attended and been awarded an 88U military occupational specialty, have attended the Locomotive Engineer Certification Course, have worked on a commercial railroad for at least 2 years, or have been in their present rail crew job for at least 3 years are exempt from the initial 80‐hour Rail Crew Qualification Course.

d. Sustainment training will consist of Web‐based instruction and hands‐on at the installation, as well as daily safety training. Installation rail crew operating personnel will be responsible for conducting/performing refresher training.

Requalification training will be accomplished via a Web‐based test.

N

15‐Dec‐23

The PWS calls out a Project Manager, Quality Control Manger, Health & Safety Officer, and Environmental Compliance Officer being needed. Does MOTCO expect these folks to be on site at all time and can one person be assigned all these roles? Otherwise, this is a lot of overhead cost that will have to get buried in to the monthly CLIN X001 cost as there is nowhere for these positions to be billed out at an hourly rate.

The Project Manager has to be separate from the Quality Control Manager. The SSHO and ECO are designated roles that may be fulfilled by either the PM or QCM. Personnel do not need to be on site at all times.

N

15‐Dec‐23

For “unscheduled safety Inspections” is that potential work expected to be covered arbitrarily in CLIN X001? In the previous contract, that was billable by linear foot. If that is not the case now, CLIN X001 is going to be a large monthly billable amount as effectively 3‐4 CLINs in the current contract are being combined into the new one moving forward.

Unscheduled safety inspections is covered under CLIN X002. The government will compensate non‐ recurring work via time and material.

N

15‐Dec‐23

Please confirm that CLIN X001 will be a flat rate monthly billing for all inspections (Annual, monthly, Emergency) and Preventive maintenance that will include the over head cost of all expected management of the new contract.

CLIN X001 covers all over head cost of scheduled maintenance (recurring work) which includes preventative maintenance and inspections. CLIN X002 covers unscheduled (non‐recurring work) which includes service requests.

N

15‐Dec‐23 Section 8.2.2 States that a minimum train crew size of 2 employees is required, but 3 man crews are referenced consistently in many other places. What is truly required for train crew size at MOTCO, 2 or 3 employees? That greatly affects the cost for the bidding process.

A ROC must concist of a 3 man crew for mission purposes (8.2.4, 8.2.5). Certain situations only require a 2 man crew (8.2.7). The Government will order the appropriate crew sizes that meet requirements.

N

15‐Dec‐23

Section 8.2.2 States that normal operations consist of two crews, but the contract needs to be able to staff up to 9 crews within 2 days’ notice. How does the government think this is reasonable? In effect, a contractor would have to provide up to 27 qualified train crew personnel in 48 hours which is impossible. Can you please clarify the true need/intent of surge protection for operations? Also, does the government expect the hourly crew cost rates to be held the same for additional surge crews? The current contract had the cost going up for additional crews due to the increased burden of crew requirement and needing to have other outside contract operators on retainer. If the government expects consistent hourly rates for train crew operators, the single base rates will be much higher to protect for this instance.

Two days' notice was incorrect on the PWS. Seven calendar days' notice is the requirement. The requirement must be there to support operations during war‐time. The PWS has been updated and CLIN X005 has been added to for surge/contingency operations.

Y

15‐Dec‐23

Section 8.2.5 Requires the contractor to be able to provide a crew within 3 hours’ notice. This is a tall order and was hard to accommodate in the current contract, however that was limited to only being allowed 5 times a year and came with a increased billable cost to MOTCO. The new PWS took out all this language and addition cost to ultimately allow MOTCO to short call our crews for an unlimited amount of times at no additional cost. Please confirm I am understanding this correctly as this change will also lead to more cost.

MOTCO will utilize the organic rail crew for short calls and we anticipate to utilize this requirement in the event MOTCO's rail crew is unable to perform operations. This section has been updated in the

PWS.

Y

SOLICITATION Q&A LOG

HTC71124RR002 MOTCO Rail Mainteneance & Terminal Operations II

UPDATED: 18 Dec 2024

15‐Dec‐23 Pertaining to organic rail crews on property – It is understandable that MOTCO can have military crews come out for training exercises and during extreme events vital to national security.

However, does MOTCO plan to have its own full time rail crew consistently? There is grave liability concerns with joint operations and that is not clearly defined in the PWS.

MOTCO's organic rail crew will operate locomotives for maintenance and operations purposes. All work done on MOTCO by rail crews shall be with ALL crews having a full understanding of work to be done, responsibility of each crew on duty and documentation of work done before or after a crew's assignment to have reference of locations IAW 8.2.3.

N

15‐Dec‐23

For pricing/bidding CLIN X001 & CLIN X004 are fairly straight forward. However, how are CLIN X002 & CLIN X003 supposed to be bid since they are expected to be hourly rates with no reference to expected hours of work to be performed? The excel document that was provided to assist in this calculation is using completely bad assumptions of the numbers of hours each position is expected to work annually. Are we supposed to put an expected “estimated price” and come up with a secondary “ceiling price” not to be exceed when submitting pricing on the HTC71124RR002 document?

The hours provided are an estimated amount based on historical data from past operations. You will bid your hourly rate for each position listed as CLINs X002 & X003 are time and material CLINs. You do not have to determine a "ceiling price".

N

15‐Dec‐23

Please confirm that there is no material quantity expectations and that there is simply an annual allotment for any and all material purchases. This is drastically different from the current contract.

This is correct. You are not expected to bid on the Materials Line. N

11 15‐Dec‐23 What is the actual date of submission for a bid/proposal? December 31st? The due date has been updated to 11 Jan 24 via Amendment 1 posted on 15 Dec 23. N 12 15‐Dec‐23 Are the Past Performance Questionnaires still due by December 20th? We will extend to be due NLT 5 Jan 24 Y

13 18‐Dec‐23

I would like to view the attendance list from the prebid meeting that was held on December 13th for the 'Military Ocean Terminal Concord Rail Maintenance' Solicitation No. HTC711‐24‐R‐R002 and am hoping you can help or perhaps know who can.

We are unable to provide this list at this time. N