Sources Sought Notice_SHM.pdf

Sources Sought Notice

693JJ3-20-SS-0006

Structural Health Monitoring (SMH) Current Practice and Web Manual

Section 1. Submittal Information Issue Date: 02/24/2020 Response Due Date: 03/04/2020, 3:00 PM EST

Submit responses electronically to HCFA-22SRI@dot.gov with a cc to james.mikell@dot.gov.

Email Subject Line must include:

SMH Current Practice and Web Manual

See below Section 4 entitled “Instructions for Submission” for submittal content instructions. One (1) electronic copy should be submitted.

Section 2. Introduction

SOURCES SOUGHT: THIS IS ONLY A MARKET SURVEY FOR WRITTEN INFORMATION. THIS IS NEITHER A REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS NOR AN ANNOUNCEMENT OF A FORTHCOMING SOLICITATION. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) seeks information from organizations with technical capability in the areas identified in this announcement. Information received will be considered solely for the purpose of identifying potential interest and capability for providing non-personal technical support services to support the objective of investigating current practices and policies on the use of deployment-ready SHM technologies and developing a comprehensive SHM Web Manual. The Contractor shall provide all personnel, equipment, supplies, facilities, transportation, tools, materials, supervision, and other items and non-personal services necessary to meet the objectives of the contract.

Background

The significant development of sensing, computing, and communication technologies coupled with the aged infrastructure and adoption of new materials and construction approaches in bridge industry triggers the rapid development and deployment of bridge Structure Health Monitoring (SHM) systems. In the past two decades, more and more bridges have been instrumented and monitored during and after construction to determine their performances and responses to various loading and environmental conditions. As part of MAP-21 and FAST-ACT legislation, requirements for bridge owners to develop data driven asset management programs have been introduced.

Bridge SHM, as a technology with a potential to collect structural performance data to supplement traditional visual inspection are attracting even more attention recently. A number of national and state sponsored studies have provided owners and decision makers insight into the potential of using SHM technologies to optimize and improve the reliability of their highway assets management.

However, the use of SHM technologies, in many cases, are still in research mode. A wider adoption of SHM as part of regular engineering practice was is not yet achieved due to multiple factors, such as, lack of policies, guidelines, specifications, standards, etc.; the information for commercially available and deployment ready SHM hardware and software is not readily accessible to practitioners and owner agencies; and a shortage of personnel with the expertise to design, deploy, mailto:HCFA-22SRI@dot.gov mailto:james.mikell@dot.gov operate, and maintain SHM systems.

To cover the knowledge gap between the practitioners and researchers, with this contract, a synthesis report that documents both domestic and international SHM practices will be created. In addition to this report, an innovative SHM web manual (similar to the FHWA NDE web manual) will be developed and made useful and conveniently accessible to practitioners and transportation agencies.

In the SHM Practices Synthesis Report, SHM technologies and deployed SHM systems will be documented; practical SHM application scenarios will be identified; and the best practice for each scenario will be recommended and demonstrated by at least one complete case study. The available standard, specifications, and guidelines related SHM will be documented and will list the technologies that do not have any standards and guidelines and make recommendations for future policy development.

The SHM Web Manual is an innovative web-based tool that provides concise and unbiased guidance to end users, and assists them with proper selection of SHM solutions that can serve their specific monitoring needs. The user can generate dynamic reports based on the user inputs.

To make the SHM Web Manual more accessible and useful to practitioners and transportation agencies, it shall be conceived as a “problem-focused” tool as opposed to a “technology-focused” one. That is, the Manual presupposes the common case where a practitioner has already identified a specific monitoring need and is seeking an SHM solution (or solutions) to provide better characterization. Through a simple interface, users can search for SHM technologies relevant to specific structural type and monitoring scenario, and can easily find definitions and descriptions of unfamiliar terms through the comprehensive glossary.

Section 3. Scope of Activities

The main objective of this contract is to explore existing knowledge of bridge SHM technologies; identify the practical monitoring scenarios and best practices for each scenario and demonstrate the practices with case studies; summarize available standards, specifications, and guidelines, and make recommendations for future policy development. In addition, a SHM Web Manual will also be developed.

The Web Manual will provide the key information required for efficient, sustainable and cost-effective SHM system design. To achieve these objectives, the major work needs to be focused on:

1. Review SHM technologies currently in practices internationally and domestically;

2. Quantify the added value and return on investment related to SHM applications;

3. Integrate SHM technologies into assets management;

4. Document current SHM related standards, specifications, and guidelines, and make recommendations for future guidance development; and

5. Develop SHM web manual

Section 4. Instructions for Submission

FHWA encourages any organization that believes it has the ability to work collaboratively with the FHWA and with other institutions on this requirement, to identify its interests and capabilities by submitting the information listed below electronically to HCFA-22SRI@dot.gov with a cc to james.mikell@dot.gov.

mailto:HCFA-22SRI@dot.gov mailto:james.mikell@dot.gov

a) Organization name and address, and contact information (name, title, email, and telephone number of the point of contact);

b) Unique Entity Identifier (DUNS number)

c) A brief description of type of business or organization;

d) Type of small business, e.g. SDVOSB, WOSB, 8(a), HUBZone, etc. NAICS code 541330

ENGINEERING SERVICES apply to this requirement with a size standard of $16.5 million;

e) A summary description of the organization’s motivation and why the business is best suited to provide the requested services and activities, as described in Section 3; and

f) A summary description of relevant technical expertise, capabilities, and facilities the organization would be willing to share or provide with regard to non-personal technical support services to support scope of activities.

NOTE: Email attachments should be submitted in Microsoft Word or Adobe PDF formats and should not exceed ten (10) pages in length. Do not submit marketing materials, slide presentations, or technical papers.

Responses to this Sources Sought Notice should include all information requested in (a) through (f) above.

The FHWA is not obligated to contact any or all respondents, hold meetings with any or all respondents, or solicit proposals as a result of this request. FHWA will not reimburse costs associated with responding to this request and does not intend to pay for the information received.

No Contract, Cooperative Agreement or Other Instrument will be awarded as a result of this Request for Information.