2-16-10CMcatRiskQuestionsandAnswers.pdf

QUESTIONS RESPONSES TO QUESTIONS

1. SF 1442 solicitation states that 1 original and 7 copies are due.

Pages 83 and 85 of the solicitation states that 1 original and 6 copies are due along with an electronic version emailed to johnsonbc@mail.nih.gov. Please confirm the following:

a. How many originals and copies are due for the technical proposal?

b. How many originals and copies are due for the business proposal?

c. Is the electronic version due via email by March 8 at 12pm?

d. Are both the technical and business proposals due in this electronic version or only specified items? The reason for this question is that due to the amount of items that are required in both the technical and business submittals, the email will be too large to transmit successfully. Please confirm.

1. SF 1442 is incorrect. The number of originals and copies for each submission are indicated below:

a. One (1) original and six (6) copies of the Technical Proposal.

b. One (1) original and six (6) copies of the Business Proposal.

c. Electronic copies are due via e-mail no later than 12 Noon on March 8th.

d. We have deleted the requirement for the Technical Proposal volume is to be submitted in electronic form. For the Business Proposal, Pricing Schedules must be submitted in Microsoft Excel, and the Small Business Subcontracting Plan should be submitted in pdf. The financial statements and other supporting documentation may be submitted as hard copies.

2. On page 91 of the solicitation, you have a Technical Proposal Section I called “Demonstrated Similar Project Experience – Minimum Requirements” in which we have to provide certain information about projects. In Section II, “Relevant Experience”, it asks us to elaborate on the two projects listed in Section I. In Section M, Evaluation Factors, page 108, it looks like Section I is being evaluated as ‘Go, No-Go” and is asking for a bonding confirmation letter as well. Please confirm what you want in Section I versus Section II. Note this has an effect on the page

2. Section I, Demonstrated Similar Project Experience – Minimum Requirements is being evaluated as the Minimum Qualifications Criteria – “Go” “No Go” Requirement, and proposals should contain all information in Sections L and M for this section, including the bonding certification letter. Section II, Relevant Experience provides a more in depth review of the offeror’s experience that the offeror identifies in Section I. Only offerors would meet the minimum qualifications criteria in Section I will receive a further evaluation.

mailto:johnsonbc@mail.nih.gov� limitation.

3. On pages 84 and 94 of the solicitation, it states that a short narrative of the Corporate Resources and Liabilities is required in the technical submittal and that the narrative and the financial statements are due in the business submittal. Please confirm that you want the narrative in both places.

3. Confirmed. The narrative should be placed in both the Technical Proposal and the Business Proposal, with the financial statements placed only in the Business Proposal.

4. The solicitation (pg 84) states that the small business and small disadvantaged business narrative and the small business plan be provided in the technical and the business submissions.

Considering the evaluation criteria stated in Section M, we want to make certain that we are reading this correctly. Please confirm that you want both the narrative and the small business plan in both the technical and price submittals.

4. The small business and small business disadvantaged business narrative describing the firms that you are proposing and the roles that they will play technically in fulfilling the scope will be placed in the Technical Proposal and the Business Proposal.

Attachment 4 in Section J of the solicitation will be placed only in the Business Proposal.

5. On page 96 of the solicitation, you request that the “Proposed cost and/or Price; Profit or Fee (as applicable), and total” be placed on the first page of the Business Proposal. Please confirm.

5. Confirmed.

6. In the Business Proposal, you request in the solicitation that we provide the DUNS number, name, and address for each sub that we propose in regards to our small business plan. Please confirm that it is for all subs that we propose or if it is only the ones that we definitively want to partner with.

6. Offerors should only proposed subcontractors that they definitely want to partner with. Offerors will not be allowed to receive evaluation points for proposing small and small disadvantaged businesses and not to implement these partnerships as proposed. NIH is committed to the participation of small business and small disadvantaged businesses and this will be closely monitored during contract performance.

7. Do you want to partner with us to select subcontractors or are you looking for us to select subcontractors prior to the submission of our business proposal?

7. You are to select subcontractors and include the subcontractors as a part of your proposal submission. However, the government will exercise its right to review and approval subcontractors.

8. The solicitation asks for “Evidence signed by a corporate surety that Offeror is capable of obtaining payment and performance bonds in the amount of equal to or more than the construction cost of the Porter Neuroscience Research Center II which has estimated price range of $165M - $200M.” Please confirm if you would like this in the technical or business proposals.

8. See the response to 2. above. The bonding certification letter should be placed in the Technical Proposal.

9. On page 18 of the solicitation, you request:

a. “List of drawings and specs including all addenda and the conditions of the contract, which were used in the preparation of the GMP Proposal”

b. A list of the clarifications and assumptions made by the CMc in the preparation of the GMP proposal to supplement the information contained in the drawings and specs.

c. Proposed GMP including a statement of the estimated cost organized by trade categories, allowances, contingencies, and other items, and the fee that comprised the GMP.

d. Date of substantial completion and final completion upon which the proposed GMP is based, and a schedule of construction documents issuance dates upon which the date of substantial completion is based. What section would you like these items in the business proposal?

9. Please read both parts of this response:

The language on page 18 is intended for determining the Guaranteed Maximum Price (GMP) based on government approved changes during contract performance and is not a part of the proposal submission for making award.

However, for this proposal submission, these requirements should be stated in the form of a brief narrative in the business proposal with the award target GMP bid to clearly define what the award target is bid is based on.

10. Due to everything that is asked for in the technical submittal, can the 100 page limit be removed? We will be hard pressed to keep everything within this page limit while providing a complete and thorough proposal for you.

10. Based on the clarifications that have been provided within, the page limitation remains at 100 pages.

11. Per Section J, there are a bunch of attachments that need to be filled out. Please confirm where you want the following items to be placed in our technical and/or business proposal:

a. A. Proposal Summary and Data Record

b. Offeror’s Points of Contact

c. Targeted / Planned Enrollment Table (if something needs to be filled out)

d. Technical Proposal Cost Summary

e. Wage Rate Determination (if something needs to be filled out)

f. Disclosure of Lobbying Activities

g. Summary of Related Activities

h. Financial Report of Individual Project / Contract

11. As a part of Amendment #000001 to Solicitation NIHOF2010205, we have posted a file folder for Section J Attachments. This file folder separates the attachments among Technical, Business and Information. Please note that Attachment 2, Past Performance Questionnaire has been eliminated as an attachment to the Technical Proposal. The government will contact references based on the contact information requested under Section I, page 91 of the solicitation posted on February 4, 2010. Only the attachments in these files shall be submitted.

12. Section J – Attachment 1 – Form “Targeted / Planned Enrollment Table” – the link does not work for the pdf or the word document. Please provide.

12. Please see the response to 11 above. This was not included in the listed Attachments on page 75, Section J of the solicitation posted on February 4, 2010.

13. Section J – Attachment 1 – “Summary of Related Activity.pdf” = the link does not work. Please provide.

13. Please see the response to 11 above.

14. Section J – Attachment 2 – “Past Performance Questionnaire” 14. Please see the response to 11 above. Also, please note that

– the link Past_Performance_Questionaire_&_Customer_Satisfaction_...”

does not work. Please provide.

Attachment 2 has been deleted.

15. Section J – Attachment 4 – “SubcontractPlan-FY08[1].pdf” – the link does not work. Please confirm that it is the same word document that is attached as http://www.hhs.gov/osdbu/SubcontractPlan-FY08.doc. If it isn’t the same, please provide.

15. Please see the response to 11 above.

16. Section J – Attachment 5 – “Pricing Schedules” – the “CMcatRiskPRICINGSCHEDULE.pdf” link does not work.

Please provide.

16. Please see the response to 11 above.

17. Section J – Attachment 8 – “Wage Rate Determination” – the “MD080056_dvb[1].pdf” link does not work. Please provide.

17. Please see the response to 11 above.

18. Please provide instructions on how you want the Team Proposal Cost Information Questionnaire to be filled out. Do you want this submitted in the Technical Proposal as the document states? We are surprised with this as it is asking for numbers. If so, what section?

18. Please see the response to 11 above. The Technical Proposal shall not include cost/price information. This file was not listed in the Section J attachments on page 75.

19. I see bid number NIHOF2010105PS has been published.

My company offers many solutions to help optimize energy efficiency in buildings.

I have been trying to do work with the government and I am not sure I am doing the right things. So if I was interested in bidding or showing some of my product on this project or any other project

19. Please be advised that all considerations will be via the solicitation placed on the fbo.gov website. You must respond in accordance with the requirements of the solicitation. The information provided below will not be considered and will not be reviewed.

who would I contact.

Showing my product to GSA would be most beneficial. Take a peek below at some of the products we offer.

20. … . I am writing you concerning the John Edward Porter Neuroscience Research Center Phase 2 project. We are excited about the opportunity submit a proposal for this project, and have received the contract documents from American Reprographics after signing the nondisclosure statement. In order to distribute drawings and specifications to subcontractors outside of ______ Construction who are interested in bidding the project, we would like to post the documents on a ______ Construction ______ website. The website functions much like a FTP site, but it allows ________ Construction to control access to the site, and to keep records of who has accessed the information on the website. Due to the restrictive code on the drawings, hard copies would still have to be provided to all interested parties by American Reprographics. The ________ site would only allow the documents to be viewed electronically.

We believe the _________ website will be an efficient way to distribute documents to certain subcontractors that are only interested in viewing a few select drawings and specification sections, rather than requiring these subcontractors to purchase prints of the full set. This would be especially helpful for many of our small business subcontractors, who we spend much of our time assisting during the bid process. We would keep records of the individuals and companies that are granted access to the site, and send you this information as we gather it.

20. Please note that we have removed the name of the contractor and the contractor’s software. The response is as follows:

NIH is not granting you the requested permission to place the drawings and specifications on your website. Please adhere to the guidelines and process that we have in place to afford fair access to all interested parties.

Please note that contractors may identify for subcontractors the sections of drawings of interest to the subcontractors, and the subcontracts may obtain hard copies of those sections from the printer, American Reprographics.

Please advise us as to whether the use of a ______ site will be acceptable. Thank you for your consideration.

21. Page 75 of the RFP (Part III - Section J - see attachment) for the NIH Porter Neuroscience Project lists a set of attachments that are included with the RFP along with their associated links. After multiple attempts, we have found that the links that are included in the document are inactive. It would be very helpful to have these links in time to review, and submit any pertinent questions related to the referenced documents prior to the Pre-Proposal Conference on 2/18/10. We would appreciate any feedback on how we can access these documents as soon as possible. Thank you for your assistance

21. Please see the response to 11 above.

22. We intend on submitting a proposal for the NIH Porter Neuroscience Center Phase 2 on March 8. We were not able to download the following documents from the links provided in Section J:

Attachment 2: Past Performance Questionnaire Attachment 5: Pricing Schedule Attachment 8: Wage Rate Determination

Please clarify the best way to get these documents.

22. Please see the response to 11 above.

23. Page 1 of 115 shows to address offer to A. Crawford (with address) while page 85 says to address offer to B. Johnson

23. Please address offers to B. Johnson.

24. Page 1 of 115 shows to provide (1) original & (7) copies of 24. Please provide an original and six (6) copies.

the proposal, but page 85 says to provide (1) original & (6) copies

25. In regards to key personnel described in the solicitation, are we to assume that all of the roles described on page 29, 30, 93 and 94 are to be considered "key personnel"? We would like to make sure that we adequately address this issue, but don't want to provide too many resumes. Please provide clarification.

25. Confirmed that the personnel listed on pages 29, 30, 93 and 94 are considered key personnel. However, please note that resumes are not required for assistant engineers, superintendents, or secretary/clerk staff levels.

26. We would assume that the minimum personnel defined on pages 29 & 30 are intended to be 100% dedicated to the project.

Please confirm.

26. Based on our experience, we have identified the minimum personnel required for each of the three phases of services. The allocation of personnel among these phases and the level of effort for successful management and completion of the work should be determined by the contractor.

27. Attachments 1, 3, & 6 reference "Principal investigators" and ask us to name these individuals on the forms that we are submitting in response to this solicitation. Please revise these forms to clarify intent.

27. Where possible, these forms have been revised to indicate Project Executive and/or Project Director. Where “Principal investigator” appears, this is meant to be “Project Executive” for this requirement.

28. Part III - Section J of the RFP (Page 75) lists a set of solicitation attachments that are incorporated into the RFP, along with their associated links. After multiple attempts, we have found that the links that are included in the document are inactive. Please provide access to these documents either through working links or by hard copy.

28. Please see the response to 11. above.

29. Article B.4 (page 6) of the RFP states “The Government will receive 60% and the CMc 40% of any savings. Article C.9.1.13 (1st paragraph on page 18) states “At completion of the contract, any surplus in the Construction Contingency shall be returned to the Government in the form of a deductive Change Order. Please clarify

29. The language in C.9.1.13, page 18, should be consistent with B.4, page 6 which states “The Government portion of the Construction Contingency shall be returned to the Government in the form of a deductive Change Order”. Accordingly, C.9.1.13 (lst paragraph on page 18 is rewritten as follows: “At completion of the contract, the Government’s portion of any surplus in the

Construction Contingency shall be returned to the Government in the form of a deductive Change Order.”

30. Article B.4 (page 6) of the RFP states “The Government will share with the CMc any savings at the completion of the contract and an executed Release of Claims.” Article L.2.c.1 (page 96) states “At the completion of 100% buy-out of all subcontracts, any surplus in the Construction Contingency will be shared with the Government receiving 60% and the CMc receiving 40% of any savings. Please clarify.

30. Please note that Article B.3., “Buy-Out Contingency,” third paragraph, states that “At the completion of the final buy-out, any surplus in the Buy-Out Contingency shall be used to increase the Construction Contingency amount through a formal contract modification.” Accordingly, Article L.2.c.1 (page 96) is rewritten to state “At the completion of the 100% buy-out of all subcontracts, any surplus will be used to increase the Construction Contingency amount through a formal contract modification. The Government will share with the CMc any savings at the completion of the contract and an executed Release of Claims.”

31. Article C.3 (page 9) of the RFP states “LEED certified design with state-of –the-art efficient mechanical systems and recycling of most of the construction waste materials.” Which level of LEED (LEED, LEED Silver, LEED Gold, LEED Platinum) is required for this for this project? Please clarify.

31. LEED Gold.

32. Article C.7.20 (page 11) of the RFP states “The term “Bid Contingency or Buy-Out Contingency” shall be an allowance for additional costs of the Subcontractor buy-out resulting from clarifications during the Pre-construction phase”. The term allowance typically implies a provisional sum that is adjusted upward or downward via a change to the contract once actual costs are determined. Please clarify if the Bid Contingency is in fact to be an allowance.

32. No. Disregard the term “allowance”. Any surplus of the Buy-Out contingency shall revert into the Construction Contingency.

33. Article F.3 (page 34) indicates the Liquidated Damages for the project to be $6,000 per calendar day. Article I.3 (page 63) indicates the Liquidated Damages to be $6,728 per calendar day.

Please clarify.

33. The Liquidated Dames for this requirement is $6,000 per calendar day. Article I.3 (page 63) should state $6,000 per calendar day.

34. Article L.2.a.8 (page 86) of the RFP indicates “Soft Metric (English Equivalent to metric): The CMc Construction Contractor and all their subcontractors shall not prepare contract documents or construct the facility using soft metrics on new NIH buildings.”

This could cause a significant increase to the projects costs.

Typically the closest English Equivalent is allowed for items such as gypsum board thickness, etc. Please clarify if the RFP can be revised to soft metric.

34. On page 85 8.. Use of the Metric System of Measurement;

the Government states “It is the policy of the Department of Health and Human Services to support the Federal transition to the metric system and to use the metric system of measurement in all procurements, grants, and other business related activities unless such use is impracticable or is likely to cause significant inefficiencies.”

The design team has accordingly prepared the documents using metric designations. As Section 8 states, where use of or providing hard metric materials is impracticable or is likely to cause significant inefficiencies (in construction); the closest English Equivalent will be allowed; however the contractors shall express all contract documents and shop drawings to conform to the metric system of measurement contained in the contract documents.

35. Article L.2.c.1 (page 95) and Article L.2.c.3 (page 97) of the RFP both detail specific information to be submitted to permit the government to determine price reasonableness or cost realism.

This information includes Direct Labor, Subcontracted Items, Raw Materials, Purchased Parts, Fringe Benefits, Indirect Costs, Special Equipment, Travel, Shipping and other costs. This information seems to be applicable to the “Final GMP” determination and not the “Target GMP” proposal when adequate competition exists. Please verify that this information is not required with the “Target GMP” proposal.

35. NIH/ORF is currently reviewing this request.

36. Article L.2..c.4(b)(1) (page 99) states “The offeror shall prepare and submit cost or pricing data and supporting

36. NIH/ORF is currently reviewing this request.

attachments in accordance with Table 15.2 of FAR 15.408.”

Please clarify is this is required as part of the Target GMP proposal on March 8, 2010 or as part of the Final GMP proposal.

37. Article L.2.c.8 (page 102) of the RFP outlines certain “Total Compensation Plan” information required to be submitted for professional employees under service contracts. We have not previously seen a requirement to submit this information as part of a proposal for a construction contract. Please verify if this information is required to be submitted as part of our proposal.

37. The requirement for a Total Compensation Plan is hereby deleted.

38. The RFP contains 3 separate sets of instructions regarding what should be provided on the first page of the Pricing Proposal.

Article L.1.a(c)(2) (page 77); Article L.2.c.2 (page 96); and General Instructions Item A of Table 15.2 in FAR 15.408 (referenced in Article L.2.c.4(b)(1) (page 99)) all indicate differing requirements and statements for the first page of the proposal.

Please clarify what is required on the first page of the proposal.

38. Please provide the Business Proposal cover sheet in accordance with the instructions set forth on pages 96 and 97 of the solicitation.

39. I am writing to ask how you would prefer we distribute drawings / specifications to subcontractors that we invite to bid?

Typically on a confidential project I would set up an FTP site and give the username / password only to subcontractors that we invite to bid the project. Is this acceptable? Thank you.

39. Please see the response to 20. above.

40. Just in case you haven't been notified yet, there seems to be some trouble downloading attachments 2, 5, & 8 from section J of

40. Please see the response to 11. above.

the RFP. Thought we would get the question in ahead of the 2/18/10 pre-proposal conference.