Sole Source Justification.pdf

V220T.12

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

OFFICE OF THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY VOLPE

NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS CENTER (VOLPE CENTER)

ENVIRONMENTAL MEASUREMENT AND MODELING DIVISION (V324)

SOLE SOURCE JUSTIFICATION

A. Description of Supplies/Services. The Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (Volpe Center) is providing support to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in its aircraft-specific air quality model development and airport air quality assessment, including project resource management and data processing. The specific objective of this work is for the Janicke Consulting, the sole contractor with access to the appropriate LASat for airPORTs (LASPORT) modeling platform, to perform modeled air quality assessment for Boston Logan Airport (BOS), one US airport. The Volpe Center will provide the BOS data necessary to Janicke Consulting for the work described in the Statement of Work (SOW). The total estimated cost of performing LASPORT simulation and analysis for BOS is $39,500 for the work described in Tasks 1-2 of the SOW.

B. Market Research. In cooperation with the German Airports Association (ADV), Janicke Consulting developed LASPORT, a standalone tool for all airports of the ADV, in 2002. LASPORT/LASAT has been widely used for airport emissions and air quality assessments in Europe and has been evaluated by ICAO/CAEP program members from various international research institutes, universities, and government agencies, with comments on its research efficacy in airport air quality assessment research captured consistently in meeting notes, White Papers, surveys, and publications.

While other airport emissions modeling tools such as the Emissions and Dispersion Modeling System (EDMS) have been available for decades, ICAO/CAEP program members have reason to believe that there are unique aspects to the LASPORT modeling algorithms pertaining to certain requirements of the Clean Air Act (CAA) and National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). These unique aspects make it worthwhile to run a common analysis (BOS) in LASPORT and compare the results to EDMS, AEDT, and other aviation modeling tools. For this reason, in 2020, Volpe funded a Phase 1 analysis of LAX to be performed in LASPORT via a purchase order with Janicke Consulting, This Phase 1 analysis was completed successfully in September 2020.

The current SOW requires a Phase 5 analysis of BOS in LASPORT to research and enhance certain capabilities of LASPORT. Again, LASPORT is proprietary to Janicke Consulting, therefore this Phase 5 LASPORT BOS analysis is not possible without Janicke Consulting as the vendor. Furthermore, it would be inappropriate for all phases of the airport study in LASPORT to be performed by different contractors, as aspects of Phases 1, 2, 3, and 4 will be brought into Phase 5 and must be very well understood across all phases by the support Contractor.

Janicke Consulting is the only entity licensed to access LASPORT and its databases and utilize it in airport air quality assessments.

C. Supporting Rationale.

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

(i) LASPORT is the only tool designed for aircraft-specific emissions dispersion modeling and is the only tool that can be used for air quality assessments at airports.

Procurement Request No. V3242240 V220T.12

(ii) LASPORT meets Germany’s regulatory requirements for air quality assessments German for airports and has been approved by ICAO/CAEP for CAEP use. Its validity for airport air quality assessments for US airports, and demonstration of its compliance for US Clean Air Act and NEPA requirements is yet to be established

(iii) Not contracting with Janicke Consulting to validate US airport air quality assessments would result in a missed opportunity and would require more resources and many scientists in producing such a tool.

(iv) The Volpe Center risks the following consequences if Janicke Consulting is not contracted to perform the work described in the SOW: LASPORT will not be available as an AEDT research module for testing and validating airport air quality assessments in the US

(v) The Volpe Center's ability to efficiently plan the logistics of such complex R&D work has been a large part of AEDT’s success in recent years, and it is in the Volpe Center's best interest to provide this additional modeling component, only available through Janicke Consulting.