Sole Source Justification_Redacted.pdf

Version 1.0

Source Selection Information – see FAR 2.101 and 3.104

SOLE SOURCE JUSTIFICATION

FOR AN ACTION EXCEEDING THE SIMPLIFIED ACQUISITION THRESHOLD

USING SIMPLIFIED PROCEDURES FOR CERTAIN COMMERCIAL ITEMS

(AUTHORITY: FAR 13.501(a), 41 U.S.C. 1901)

1. Agency and contracting activity.

The Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Acquisition and Grants Office (AGO), Eastern Region Acquisition Division (ERAD), Norfolk, VA and National Ocean Service (NOS) Office of National Marine Sanctuaries (ONMS).

2. Nature and/or description of the action being approved.

NOAA AGO, ERAD intends to award a Sole Source contract to The Mariners’ Museum (TMM) for professional conservation services to conduct ongoing treatment for artifacts in the NOAA Monitor Collection, which is currently awarded to TMM under contract EA-133C-15-SE-1330. A time-and-materials (T&M) contract is to be considered for award. The Contracting Officer has determined that the conservation services are commercial in nature and the services will be procured in accordance with FAR 13.5, Simplified Procedures for Certain Commercial Items.

3. Description of supplies or services required to meet the agency’s needs (including the total estimated value).

The requirement is to provide professional conservation services with a base period of performance of one year and four one-year option periods, beginning on October 1, 2020. This requirement is needed to provide professional conservation services to conduct ongoing treatment for the artifacts in the NOAA USS Monitor Collection. The USS Monitor National Marine Sanctuary is home to archaeological materials from the wreck of the Civil War Ironclad USS Monitor that have been recovered from the seabed after several years of research. The USS Monitor artifact conservation requires initial stability treatments for smaller artifacts and ongoing treatment for larger artifacts to establish monitoring, storage, and preservation care regimens.

4. Statutory authority permitting the sole source (including brand name) acquisition.

41 U.S.C. 1901, using SAP up to $7M as authorized by FAR 13.500(a) and implemented by FAR 13.501(a).

□ 41 U.S.C. 1903, using SAP up to $13M for contingency operations as authorized by FAR 13.500(c) and implemented by FAR 13.501(a).

5. Demonstration that the proposed contractor’s unique qualifications or the nature of the acquisition requires use of the authority cited.

The contracting officer has determined the following circumstances justify the use of a sole source as supported below:

Only one source – Only one source is capable of providing the supplies or services required at the level of quality required because the supplies or services are unique or highly specialized.

NOAA’s ONMS designated the USS Monitor as the first National Marine Sanctuary in 1975.

Since that time NOAA has acted as stewards of its iconic historic preservation. In an effort to best interpret the site and share the history with many Americans, NOAA began collecting select artifacts from the seabed and sought a strategic location for curation, conservation, and public display of materials from the USS Monitor. In 1987, TMM was designated as the official repository for the USS Monitor Collection by NOAA. TMM is an accredited museum recognized worldwide for its collection, expert staff, and commitment to preserving the world’s maritime artifacts, stories, and legacies. TMM is also designated by Congress as “America’s National Marine Museum.” NOAA selected TMM as the official repository for the USS Monitor Collection also because of its professional associations and partnerships with regionally-located centers of industrial excellence such as Newport News Shipbuilding, Thomas Jefferson National Particle Accelerator Facility, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Langley, Christopher Newport University, Old Dominion University, and other organizations. TMM has leveraged relationships with these organizations to provide varying types of critical assistance to the USS Monitor.

TMM is home to the USS Monitor Center that is dedicated to the goal of conserving, preserving, and exhibiting all artifacts from NOAA’s Monitor Collection. The 62,500-square-feet facility contains award-winning Ironclad Revolutionary gallery that interprets treated artifacts from USS Monitor Collection for public benefit. The USS Monitor Center also contains the Batten Conservation Laboratory Complex, recognized as the world’s largest marine archeological metals conservation project and facility. The facility was built to conserve the USS Monitor and share it with the public. The Batten Conservation Lab is equipped with custom-built equipment designed exclusively for conserving artifacts from the USS Monitor Collection. Shipbuilding experts from Newport News Shipbuilding designed and constructed custom treatment tanks with capacities as large as 90,000 gallons for treating large artifacts like USS Monitor’s 120-ton revolving gun turret, 20-ton steam engine, Dahlgren guns and carriages, and other massive artifacts. The lab also contains a 40/5 ton overhead gantry crane for handling large artifacts. No other conservation lab currently possesses the treatment capacity of TMM.

As part of a decades-long conservation effort, TMM has the largest body of institutional memory related to the USS Monitor artifact collection. For decades, TMM has employed an international team of experts and leaders in the field of maritime artifact conservation, who have considerable experience working on artifacts recovered from NOAA’s Monitor National Marine Sanctuary. Their primary focus has been and remains the conservation and exhibition of artifacts from NOAA’s USS Monitor Collection. TMM conservation staff have also developed a desalination (chloride) monitoring system on a scale not utilized in any marine archeological metals lab in the country. This system allows for efficient monitoring of chloride extraction from all artifacts in passive or active treatment. TMM employs a staff of Collections Management professionals who perform various tasks and duties in direct support of the USS Monitor Collection. The staff monitors climate data in the galleries and artifact storage areas, maintains the formal collections database, and arranges external loans of artifacts from the USS Monitor Collection to other interested organizations around the country.

In addition to the technical expertise of the site selected, there are also regional and historical significance of housing the collection in Newport News, VA. The Battle of Hampton Roads (USS Monitor v. CSS Virginia) occurred in close proximity to TMM.

In regards to the decades of ongoing conservation effort for the USS Monitor collection, there are some significant negative impacts to the Government that would result from relocating some or part of the collection to other facilities. TMM has successfully conserved a significant proportion of the USS Monitor Collection, so altering the current conservation plan at this late phase of the overall project by moving the collection would be counterproductive to the health of the USS Monitor Collection and cause potential damage by destabilizing the artifacts. Many of the largest and most significant artifacts recovered from the USS Monitor National Marine Sanctuary are so fragile that moving them to a different facility would cause irreparable damage and/or loss to the artifacts. For example, all cast-iron components in the USS Monitor Collection such as Dahlgren shell guns, main engine cylinders, Worthington bilge pumps, ventilation engines, engine room deck plates, etc. are highly graphitized due to corrosion.

Much of the original ferrous content of those artifacts was lost during 140 years of exposure to the corrosive marine environment. As a result, in many cases, only carbon remains in the form of artifacts leaving them brittle and prone to fracture. The movement of any of the aforementioned components from the USS Monitor Center would result in the permanent loss or destruction of the artifacts from this National Historic Landmark.

As a result, TMM is the only source capable of performing these conservation services. No other source has the facility capabilities or expert staff to perform this work. TMM established the USS Monitor Center that is specifically designed for the USS Monitor in order to continue conservation efforts. It is not in the Government’s best interest to relocate the USS Monitor artifacts as this would be cost prohibitive and would severely damage the USS Monitor artifacts. Therefore, it is in the best interest of the Government to award this contract to TMM.

6. Description of efforts made to ensure that offers are solicited from as many potential sources as practicable, including whether a notice was or will be publicized as required by FAR Subpart 5.2 and, if not, which exception under FAR 5.202 applies.

In addition to the market research delineated below, NOAA AGO ERAD issued a Notice of Intent with the Performance Work Statement (PWS) to beta.SAM.gov in accordance with FAR Subpart 5.2, Synopses of Proposed Contract Actions. The Notice of Intent was issued on December 6, 2019 with a response due date of December 20, 2019. The Notice of Intent requested capability statements from all interested businesses who qualified under North American Industry Classification System code 541690- Other Scientific and Technical Consulting Services. The Notice of Intent informed businesses that capability statements shall address the company capabilities to provide Professional Conservation Support Services for NOS ONMS. The Government did not receive any responses to the Notice of Intent. NOAA determined that TMM was the only capable business of providing the required Professional Conservation Support Services for the NOS ONMS. Therefore, the Government intends to award a sole source, time-and-materials contract to TMM and not open the requirement to competition because there are no other businesses capable of providing these services and based on the lack of responses to the Notice of Intent.

7. Determination by the contracting officer that the anticipated cost to the Government will be fair and reasonable.

Prior to award of the proposed contract, pricing information shall be obtained from the contractor and a price analysis will be performed to sufficiently determine that the price to the Government of the proposed acquisition will be fair and reasonable in accordance with FAR 13.106-3(a)(2). The proposed rates will be compared to the rates found reasonable on the previous contract, EA- 133C-15-SE-1330, as well as the comparison to the independent Government cost estimate and market research.

8. Description of the market research conducted (see Part 10) and the results or a statement of the reason market research was not conducted.

A Notice of Intent to award a sole source contract to TMM was posted to the Government point of entry, beta.SAM.gov, on December 6, 2019 with a response due date of December 20, 2019.

Businesses were to provide affirmative responses demonstrating an understanding of the requirement and statements of capability demonstrating their ability to meet the requirement. The Government did not receive responses from any businesses. Therefore, the Government intends to award a sole source, time-and-materials contract to TMM and not open the requirement to competition because there are no other businesses capable of providing these services and based on the lack of responses to the Notice of Intent.

9. Any other facts supporting the use of a sole source (including brand name), such as:

All pertinent facts have been documented within other sections of this document. There are no additional facts to be reported in this section.

10. List of the sources that expressed a written interest in the acquisition.

No sources expressed a written interest in response to the requirement notification on beta.SAM.gov or from the agency procurement forecast published in the Forecasting and Advanced Acquisition Planning System.

11. A statement of the actions, if any, the agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers to competition before any subsequent acquisition for the supplies or services required.

The Government will continue to conduct thorough market research to gauge marketplace capabilities for future requirements; however, it is unlikely that any subsequent acquisitions for the same requirement will be competitive procurements because of the highly specialized and unique nature of this requirement.