Redacted JandA - W912DY22D0130-W912DY24F0373 Ft Devens.pdf

CUI//SP-PROCURE//FEDCON

EFO – Ft Devens Range Control Number: CEHNC-25-0015

JUSTIFICATION REVIEW DOCUMENT

FAR Part 16 Justification for an Exception to Fair Opportunity

Program/Equipment: This Task Order is for the provision of munitions-related services under the Chemical, Environmental, and Munitions Response Unrestricted (ChEM-RU) Multiple Award Task Order Contract (MATOC) necessary to provide construction support for the Multi-Purpose Machine Gun (MPMG) Range being constructed at Fort Devens, Massachusetts.

Authority: Title 10 United States Code (U.S.C.) 3206(a)(5) as implemented in Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 16.505(b)(2)(i)(G): The justification to modify this task order using other than full and open competition satisfies the exception in FAR 6.302-1(a)(2)(iii)(A) – services may be deemed to be available only from the original source in the case of follow-on contracts for the continued provision of highly specialized services when it likely that award to any other source would result in substantial duplication of cost to the Government that is not expected to be recovered through competition.

Amount: $3,200,000.00.

Prepared by: Melissa L. Watkins Phone: 256-895-1883

Branch Chief E-mail: Melissa.L.Watkins@usace.army.mil

Contracting Officer: Christy N. Tallant Phone: 256-895-5238

Contracting Officer Christy.N.Tallant@usace.army.mil

Technical: Daniel Gaston Phone: 256-895-1491

Technical Manager E-mail: Daniel.R.Gaston@usace.army.mil

Requirements: Michael Malone Phone: 256-895-1637

Project Manager Michael.D.Malone@usace.army.mil

Controlled by: US Army Controlled by: USACE-CEHNC CUI Category: General Procurement and Acquisition Distribution/Limited Dissemination Control: FED ONLY POC: Christy N. Tallant 256-895-5238

EFO – Ft Devens Range Control Number: CEHNC-25-0015

FAR Part 16 Justification for an Exception to Fair Opportunity

1. Requiring Activity: US Army Reserve Command (USARC) for services located at the Multi-Purpose Machine Gun (MPMG) Range at Fort Devens, Massachusetts.

2. Contracting Activity: USACE, Engineering and Support Center, Huntsville, (CEHNC) Redstone Gateway (RG 300), Redstone Arsenal, Alabama 35808.

3. Description of Action: Request approval to modify the Firm Fixed Price (FFP) Chemical, Environmental, and Munitions Response (CHEM-RU) Task Order (TO) W912DY-24- F-0373 for $3.2 Million with Dawson Solutions, LLC (hereafter referred to as Dawson), 4100 Market St., Suite 117, Huntsville, Alabama, 35808, CAGE 57JH5. The TO period of performance is expected to last 104 days for munitions clearance, plus 4 weeks up to 6 months for construction-phase monitoring. The modification will be funded with FY25 Operation and Maintenance (O&M) funds in the amount of $1.65 Million for an initial clearance of munitions, and the optional tasks for munitions clearance and construction support efforts estimated at $1.55 Million will use future year O&M funds. The TO value will increase from $1.38 Million by $3.2 Million to $4.58 Million.

4. Description of Supplies/Services: The munitions clearance services are necessary to clear 37.7 acres of a Multi-Purpose Machine Gun (MPMG) Range of potential unexploded ordnance (UXO) so that a currently paused construction project on the MPMG Range can continue at Ft. Devens, Massachusetts. The munitions clearance efforts will require mobilizing specialized UXO technicians and equipment to allow the MPMG range construction to proceed and ensure the Installation Management Command (IMCOM) can have an operational range to support Soldier readiness training on high-caliber weapons by late calendar year 2029. Without the services, the MPMG Range construction contractor, awarded under a different contract through USACE Louisville District, will continue to experience a day-to-day construction schedule slip. The required effort is expected to take approximately 104 days to conduct the munitions clearance. An additional period of 4 weeks up to 6 months is also necessary to actively monitor for UXO munitions during the MPMG Range construction phase once the construction resumes under the Louisville District contract. The additional munitions clearance and construction support effort is estimated to cost $3.2 Million.

5. Authority Cited: Title 10 United States Code (U.S.C.) 3206(a)(5) as implemented in Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 16.505(b)(2)(i)(G): The justification to modify this task order using other than full and open competition satisfies the exception in FAR 6.302- 1(a)(2)(iii)(A) – services may be deemed to be available only from the original source in the case of follow-on contracts for the continued provision of highly specialized services when it likely that award to any other source would result in substantial duplication of cost to the Government that is not expected to be recovered through competition.

6. Reason for Authority Cited:

a. Background & Justification: This TO was originally awarded to Dawson on 23 September 2024 to provide qualified Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) Technicians for construction support at Fort Devens while the USACE, Louisville District’s construction contractor constructs the new MPMG Range. (See Attachment 2 – Task Order. W912DY-24-F-0373) The solicitation was issued only to the small business ChEM-RU MATOC holders using FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(F)

EFO – Ft Devens Range Control Number: CEHNC-25-0015 as the justification for limited competition. Prior to award of the construction contract, the range was partially cleared under a prior contract. Only those areas deemed to be medium to high-risk for ordnance and explosives were cleared by a prior contractor under a separate contract. No clearance was performed in the low-risk areas as ordnance and explosives were not expected to be found there and the overall assessment by the Government was that it was safe to disturb the site, but only with oversight from the construction support contractor. Should an item be found during construction, work would stop, and the construction support contractor would identify the item and determine if the item was scrap metal or a Munitions and Explosives of Concern/Munitions Potentially Presenting an Explosive Hazzard (MEC/MPPEH). They would then secure the item until the local Explosives Ordnance Disposal (EOD) team could safely dispose of the item so that work could resume.

Dawson was awarded this task order to perform construction support, ensuring the safety of the construction contractor’s personnel by being readily available to identify and secure any MEC/MPPEH should the construction contractor unearth it when disturbing the site during construction activities. The proposed ordnance clearance effort has become necessary to ensure the safety of the construction contractor’s personnel. During recent construction work performed on the 37.7 acres previously deemed low-risk, the construction contractor was attempting to dig footings to construct new targets and encountered MEC/MPPEH. Two MEC items (a 60mm round and a 155mm round) were uncovered while digging in the area. With the uncovering of these items, the Government reassessed the risk and determined that it was incorrectly determined to be low-risk based on the items found, and hence the range construction in this area has been suspended due to safety until the area can be safely cleared of any additional MEC/MPPEH.

Louisville District requested CEHNC to perform the clearance. CEHNC developed a modification to the Performance Work Statement (PWS) and with that, an Independent Government Estimate (IGE) for the modification to add the clearance of 37.7 acres of land on the MPMG Range and provide up to an additional 4 weeks to 6 months of construction support.

CEHNC approved an exception to fair opportunity on 16 June 2025 for approximately $729K (original IGE value) and issued the request for proposal with the revised PWS to Dawson.

Dawson’s original proposal for this modification came in under the IGE. However, during clarifications with Dawson, it became apparent that CEHNC’s cost estimator did not have a complete understanding of the area to be cleared and had assumed a flat undisturbed field, which was not accurate. Dawson brought up during clarifications that there were multiple berms and loam stockpiles spread across the site by a prior contractor, and root balls from old tree stumps that needed to be investigated and cleared of any MEC/MPPEH. While Dawson did not propose initially to clear these berms and loam stockpiles, or the tree root balls, they asked CEHNC who would, as they were concerned the construction contractor would stop working again when they came across these areas on the site. After discussions with the CEHNC engineers and the Louisville District’s Project Manager, it was agreed that Dawson should include the clearance of the berms, loam stockpiles, and tree root balls of any potential MEC/MPPEH as well. This was expected to significantly increase the level of effort required by Dawson, and thus after clarifications of the scope requirements, a revised proposal was submitted in the amount of approximately $2.3M without providing certified cost and pricing data. Immediately upon receipt of Dawson’s revised proposal, it was clear the original EFO approved at the Contracting Officer’s level was not appropriate and CEHNC would need to seek approval at the Senior Contracting Official’s level.

EFO – Ft Devens Range Control Number: CEHNC-25-0015 the targets, no horizontal construction is occurring and the Louisville District has confirmed they are experiencing day-to-day schedule slippages and are expected to incur an estimated $1.5 million to $1.7 million in delay costs (inclusive of contract and Government management costs).

The proposed modification would allow the construction support contractor to perform munitions clearance activities prior to the construction contractor entering the area, to reduce the possibility that the construction contractor digs any additional MEC/MPPEH up and not fear the safety of their employees or damage to their equipment. The construction contractor will not perform any work in the UXO risk areas until Dawson has completed the UXO clearance in the area down to a depth of 2 feet below the existing surface and in the berms, loam stockpiles, and tree root ball areas. When the construction contractor is able to safely work in the area once the exclusion zone distance is met, they will start to follow immediately behind Dawson (estimated to be approximately 30-40 days from award of the modification) and perform their soil excavation work. They will only excavate the areas in 2-foot lifts. Then Dawson will scan and clear the excavated area under Dawson’s construction support tasks. Once the clearance effort is completed for the 37.7 acres and the berms, loam stockpiles, and tree root balls, the construction contractor will resume their full construction efforts on the site with Dawson performing construction support until complete.

b. Alternatives: The alternative that was considered was to compete and award a new task order to do a full clearance of the MEC/MPPEH while Louisville District issued a suspension of work to the construction contractor. While this requirement could be issued under a separate competed Task Order under the ChEM-RU MATOC, the time and cost to do so is not in the Government’s best interest. It would take approximately two weeks to get the new Task Order Request for Proposal developed, approved, and issued, 30-days to allow the offerors to develop their proposal (which would require a site visit to see the area for themselves to eliminate similar errors that our estimator made due to a lack of information), and then upon receipt of proposals, evaluate, negotiate, and award that Task Order. After award, another 60 days would be required to get approved work/safety/quality control plans in place before issuing a Notice to Proceed to mobilize and execute the work. This separate Task Order would also require additional oversight and administration efforts. The total estimated cost for all this could exceed for the Government to award the effort that is expected to cost approximately $3.2M. This alternative approach would also increase schedule delays and project costs for the military construction contract substantially.

In comparison, if the Government executes a modification to Dawson’s existing Construction Support TO, the cost for CEHNC labor is approximately . This includes drafting and revising the PWS, drafting and issuing the RFP for the modification, evaluating the proposal, clarifications, re-evaluating the revised proposal, and executing the modification to the TO. After award of the modification, Dawson would only have to amend their work/safety/quality control plans to account for the intrusive investigation efforts which would reduce the Government’s review times significantly allowing the NTP to be issued in approximately 15 days from acceptance of the amended plans. The fact that Dawson is on-site already will also reduce the costs for any mobilization of personnel and field office requirements, as well as demobilization costs after completion of the clearance work. This effort to develop new plans, reports and mobilize/demobilize to/from the site is estimated to be that would not be recovered through competition of a new task order versus going to Dawson who is currently on-site.

Dawson estimates it will be completed in 104 days from award of the modification to complete the plan amendments and execute the work. The proposed alternative minimizes delays and associated costs to the military construction contract.

EFO – Ft Devens Range Control Number: CEHNC-25-0015

c. Impact if not approved: If this J&A is not approved, the Government will delay this training range construction project even further, preventing the Army from training Soldiers to be lethal with high caliber weaponry and prepare for war. Additional cost and time will be required to develop, approve and solicit a new task order, complete the site visit, evaluate proposals and make an award. The construction contractor is incurring delay costs since June 2025 (currently estimated to be $1.5 million to 1.7 million for the delays) and will encounter further issues and day-to-day slippages/delays if the construction goes longer into the winter and spring seasons where weather could impact completion of the range.

7. Actions to Increase Competition: In order to increase competition in the future, an Acquisition Strategy meeting will be established and held for each new Task Order acquisition.

In these meetings, the Project Delivery Team will discuss the overall requirements and potential risks or effort that might be required to be performed in order to properly plan for contingencies in advance, ensure the contract structure and tasks are appropriately accounted for as required or optional (to be exercised only if needed), and that the contractors are able to adequately price the required and optional effort reasonably to eliminate the need for future exceptions to fair opportunity to the maximum extent possible. When possible, site visits and site walks could reveal additional risks that the Government missed during the planning phase. Additionally, other methods of determining site characteristics will be used, when possible, to properly identify low versus high-risk areas on target range projects.

8. Market Research: Market Research for the original task order award was conducted on 24 Jul 2024. During the initial acquisition, the Contracting Officer reviewed the Product Delivery Team's (PDTs) supporting documents and the Federal Strategic Sourcing Initiative list. The reviews supported the Contracting Officer’s determination that none of the preferred sources were appropriate contract vehicles for the acquisition. In accordance with Defense Acquisition Regulation Supplement 210.001(a)(i), the Government reviewed the acquisition and determined the work was not a consolidation of current requirements. Upon completion of the initial market research, it was determined the small businesses within the ChEM-RU MATOC Pool would be solicited this requirement under FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(F).

For this J&A, additional market research was conducted on 01 Aug 2025 to validate the results of the original market research. (See Attachment 3 – Market Research 24 Jul 2024, and Attachment 4 – Market Research 01 Aug 2025) and further validate that there is significant capacity remaining on the ChEM-RU MATOC to cover the requirement supported in this J&A.

To determine potential interest from the small business ChEM-RU MATOC holders, On 11 September 2025, CEHNC asked the other four small businesses who originally were solicited the construction support requirement in 2024, if they were interested in this additional work at Fort Devens and were provided the revised PWS. They were also notified that it was CEHNC’s intent to sole source this to Dawson who is already on-site. There were no responses from 3 of the 4 contractors, and only one officially returned a notice of non-interest.

The small businesses under the ChEM-RU MATOC consists of the following 5 firms:

Contract Number Company Large or Small

Business W912DY-22-D-0081 Environmental Chemical Corporation (ECC) Small W912DY-22-D-0082 HydroGeoLogic, Inc. (HGL) Small

EFO – Ft Devens Range Control Number: CEHNC-25-0015

W912DY-22-D-0130 Dawson Solutions, LLC 8(a) SB W912DY-22-D-0131 EA Engineering, Science and Technology, Inc. SB

W912DY-22-D-0132 GSI MMRP JV, LLC SB

Based on the aforementioned, it is in the best interest of the Government to issue a Task Order Modification to Dawson.

9. Other Facts:

a. Procurement history. Contract number and dates of the last several awards:

1) W912DY-24-F-0373 was awarded to Dawson on 23 September 2024 in the amount of $845,539.00, which included the base tasks and some optional tasks. If all optional tasks are awarded, the total amount of the TO will be $1,383,948.00. The Task Order was for construction support at Fort Devens, Massachusetts. To date, no modifications have been issued on this task order.

2) Competitive status of these actions: The above TO award was competed among all five small businesses within the ChEM-RU MATOC pool under FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(F).

b. Other facts. The total time to mobilize and clear the 37.7-acre area is 104 days, while construction delays due to competitively competing this effort will exceed the time that it will take to execute the work in the low-risk area by an estimated 200 days. Since June 2025, the construction contractor has suspended horizontal construction work and the delays may cost the Government an estimated $1.5 million - $1.7 million (inclusive of contract and Government costs) for the modification and management of the construction contract. Since Dawson is already working on site, it is unlikely the agency will receive better pricing by competing this effort due to the additional mobilization/demobilization and development of full work, safety, accident prevention, and quality control plans that would be needed for a new contractor to perform the increased work.