Statement of Work.docx

Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site Visitor’s Center Exhibit Museum Collection Artifacts: Pack/Move and Return/Replace

Scope of Work/Moving Plan

Background:

Hopewell Furnace showcases an early American industrial landscape from natural resource extraction to enlightened conversation. Operating from 1771-1883, Hopewell and other “iron plantations” laid the foundation for the transformation of the United States into an industrial giant. The park’s 848 acres and historic structures illustrate the business, technology and lifestyle of our growing nation.

The museum collections provide historic context and offer insight into the business and lives of employees and families living and working at the furnace throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth century. Hopewell Furnace has approximately 77 cataloged historic artifacts on exhibit that include items with a strong provenance to Hopewell Furnace.

Project Description:

Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site (NHS) Visitor’s Center exhibit will have conservation on 27 artifacts to insure their long-term preservation while on display for the public. The work is anticipated to start in mid-December 2020 timeframe to early fall of 2021. As a result of the complexity to move some of these artifacts the museum and collections objects must be removed from exhibit, packed, and moved to Harper’s Ferry Center, WV for conservation. Upon completion of the conservation of these artifacts return transport from Harper’s Ferry Center must be provided as well as unpacking and returning to exhibit on site at Hopewell Furnace NHS Visitor’s Center. It is anticipated that the conservation will take between 8-9 months before return transportation is required.

A museum collection move is far different then a household move, or an office move. It is far more complex as each item may have special requirements in handling and in storage. It involves the examination of each item and documenting condition, documenting of current locations for each artifact or archival document as all will have to be returned to that same location within the Visitor’s Center exhibit 6 or more months later. The contactor’s staff must be composed of museum professionals and registrars who understand the importance of clear documentation and collection stewardship. The team must include highly skilled art handlers and art technicians who specialize in the areas of packing, crate fabrication, installation, transportation, and registration/paperwork. Staff must also be skilled in unpacking of the collection items and the placement within the Visitor’s Center.

An inventory must be created identifying each item’s current location within building. Each item must be evaluated for the best packing method (against shock or vibration) then packed for transport. An inventory of the contents of each packing container must be created and cross referenced to its original location within the Visitor’s Center. Transport to and from temporary storage (this often will require the creation of a unique box or crate), must be on climate-controlled, air-ride trucks with lift-gates and the temporarily storage facility, if required, must also be climate-controlled. Anything less could mean the loss of a piece of our nation’s history. Trying to replace one damaged or lost piece may be far more costly than the additional cost of this level of care. The contractor’s storage facility, if required for cross docking, must be climate-controlled and in a location that is located within a reasonable distance, 60 miles or less.

To move these types of artifacts requires a uniquely qualified and experienced staff with specialized training in how to pack, move and store historic and archaeological artifacts, historic documents and artworks covering the 18th and 19th century.

The work of this project will consist of 3 phases; the contractor will be involved in all Phases of work. Handling of boxes and furniture shall follow standards set forth in the NPS Museum Handbook, and all contents shall be handled as “fragile.”

Phase 1:

Deinstall, Cleaning, Inventory & Packing. The contractor will remove objects from exhibit and dust before they are packed. Cleaning techniques used will be specific to the material type using museum industry standards. Museum objects will not be placed in boxes/crates unless they have been listed on an inventory containing current storage location and are part of the storage box/crate contents list. Additionally, this inventory of the contents of each box will be copied 3 times; one copy will be placed inside the box/crate, one copy will be taped to the exterior of the box/crate, and one copy will be given to the park museum staff.

Packing will follow standards for shipment rather than storage because preparation for shipment includes greater protection measures. While commercial materials like bubble wrap will be used to pack, museum objects will require—in all cases—a barrier of acid free paper or other acid-free material such as muslin. The contractor will provide all necessary supplies and equipment for packing objects including boxes or crates as necessary. All inventory, cleaning, and packing will follow standards and practices set forth in the National Park Service Museum Handbook.

Phase 2:

Transport. All items transported shall be stored in a museum-quality storage environment supplied by the Contractor. “Museum quality” is defined as an environment between 65- and 70-degrees F with a maximum of 5 degrees F fluctuation in any 24-hour period and with a permissible 50 to 55% Relative Humidity with a maximum deviation of 5% in any 24-hour period.

Phase 3:

Transport & Reinstall

The Contractor shall return all objects from Harper’s Ferry Center to Hopewell Furnace NHS Visitor’s Center and return objects to their designated locations as directed by the park Museum Curator or Archivist. The contractor shall remove all packing material.

During all phases of this project, the Contractor shall be responsible for all labor, materials, supplies, equipment, fuel, transport and storage costs for the packing, moving and storing of museum objects from Hopewell Furnace’s Visitor Center.

The contractor may invoice after the completion of each phase.

All phases of work shall be performed in accordance with standards and guidelines for handling, packing, shipping, and storing museum collections as outlined the National Park Service (NPS) Museum Handbook. (See Chapters 6 and 7, attached. The entire Museum Handbook is available at: http://www.nps.gov/history/museum/publications/MHI/mushbkI.html). In the case of any conflicts between the NPS Museum Handbook and this Scope of Work, the requirements of this Scope of Work/Moving Plan shall prevail.

Objects will be moved from:

Hopewell Furnace Visitor’s Center Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site 20 Mark Bird Ln Elverson, PA 19520

Objects transported to:

Harper’s Ferry Center 31 Maple Tree Drive Charles Town, WV 25414

Scope of Work Statement for the Contractor

a. The Visitor’s Center at Hopewell Furnace National Historic Site will be open to the public during the pack, crate and move phase of the contract.

b. Contractor’s assigned staging area is the Visitor’s Center parking lot. Contractor may place supplies equipment there but must ensure it is secure and not a safety concern for visitors’, staff, and other contractors. Except when moving objects onto Contractor’s moving truck, no equipment may be placed on the park access road through the parking lot adjacent to the Visitor’s Center. See Figure 1 at end of Statement of Work.

c. As the park grounds will be open to the public during the work, the Contractor shall erect safety zones around the staging area when undertaking any exterior work, such as the use of power tools when constructing crates. The Contractor is responsible for setting of a security zone barrier and station a person at any entrance/exit that the Contractor is using to move materials in or out of the house during the work. Doors shall remain locked and secured when not in use.

d. At all times during the wrapping, packing, crating and moving, Contractor will be observed by the Contracting Officer Representative (COR). The scheduling of the move shall be coordinated with the availability of the COR.

e. Moving shall not be conducted during a period of inclement weather. Inclement weather shall mean the existence of rain or abnormal climatic conditions (whether they be those of hail, snow, high wind, severe dust storm, extreme high or low temperature or the like or any combination thereof) by virtue of which there is a high potential of damage or impacts to museum collections and/or the crates and boxes. Objects shall not be exposed to any forms of precipitation during this move. If, within forty-eight hours of a scheduled move, there is a forecast of any severe weather system forecast in Elverson, PA by the NOAA’s National Weather Service, the move shall be rescheduled at no additional cost to the Government. Work of wrapping, packing and/or crating inside the Main House may continue during periods of inclement weather.

RESPONSIBILITIES/REQUIREMENTS OF THE CONTRACTOR

1. Contractor general requirements:

a. All work will be performed between the hours of 7:00 AM. and 4:00 PM with the presence of the COR.

b. Weekend, holiday and late or early hours of work must be agreed upon prior to scheduling. This will be determined at the time of the contract award.

c. The selected Contractor shall comply with all local, state and federal rules and regulations.

d. The Contractor shall provide proof of basic carrier liability insurance as well and standard insurance and bonding which covers the company and its employees against neglect, accident, theft and damage.

e. The Contractor shall provide additional fine arts insurance of $1,000,000 using a qualified insurance underwriter. Insurance certificate shall be provided to the Contracting Officer (CO) before work begins.

f. The Contractor shall provide containers for collection and disposal of waste and trash resulting from the work and shall dispose of waste and trash legally at public or private dump areas beyond the Park boundary. If a dumpster is needed, park management will have final approval of dumpster location.

g. The Contractor shall place barriers, tape or other means of exclusion in areas where they are operating power equipment to prevent intervention by the public.

h. To assure the safety and protection of the collection and historic structure throughout all phases of this project, the Contractor and/or representatives of the Contractor, shall not advertise/publicize/cite their involvement with any phase of the project in any way (including, but not limited to, websites, handouts, flyers, brochures, newsletters, reports, traditional media and social networking sites (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare) until after contract closeout.

2. Logistics for the Hopewell Furnace NHS Visitor Center:

a. Contractor is responsible to protect doors and walls of the against any impact and abrasion.

b. Restroom facilities will be available for the Contractor’s staff in the Visitor Center Restroom, which is located on the exterior lower floor of the Visitor Center.

c. Heavy equipment such as a forklift (if necessary) and pallet jack will be allowed on the grounds. Contractor shall take care not to damage the facility. Any such equipment, if needed, shall be Contractor furnished.

3. Contractor staff:

a. All work shall be performed in a safe and professional manner. Work areas inside the Ironmaster’s and within the assigned staging area shall be kept clean and free of debris.

b. All Contractor staff shall wear Contractor-furnished identification badges and sign-in and out at the beginning and end of each day with the Hopewell Furnace NHS staff.

c. No smoking, food or beverage consumption is allowed inside the Ironmaster’s Mansion.

d. The Contractor shall designate a move supervisor to manage all labor at both origin and destination. The supervisor shall work with the COR during all phases of the wrapping, packing, crating and move and shall support all decisions made by the Contracting Officer concerning temporary work stoppages that impact the safety and protection of the staff, the objects or the historic structure.

4. Contractor vehicles and move to/from Harper’s Ferry Center, WV:

a. The Contractor shall provide trucks with air-ride suspension, rear lift gate, dual drivers, and constant communication ability with their main office through GPS tracking or other secure method.

b. The Contractor-provided trucks shall park in areas designated by the COR which does not block emergency access.

c. The Contractor shall complete each move to/from the Contractor-provided storage facility by truck transport within one work day. The museum collection, or any part thereof, shall, at no time, be stored in vehicles overnight.

d. Contractor trucks used to transport collection objects shall be hard sided and clean with no residue of foodstuffs, chemicals, hazardous materials, stains from previous use.

e. Contractor vehicles shall not leak and there shall be no possibility that water can get inside the truck during inclement weather.

f. Each Contractor vehicle shall have dual drivers with knowledge and experience with specialized museum object handling experience.

g. The Contractor vehicles that will transport the museum collections shall carry fire suppression (fire extinguishers) equipment and staff trained in its use to be immediately available in case of emergencies.

h. The collection shall be secured in the Contractor trucks with appropriate Contractor-provided locks and security seals for the cargo area during transport. At any time the collection, or any part thereof, is loaded in a truck, and doors of the vehicle are not locked, at least one member of the Contractor staff shall be present to monitor all access to the vehicle.

i. The Contractor staff is not authorized to open any box unless requested by the COR.

j. Other than the observance of traffic laws, vehicles shall not make stops during the park to storage facility transport.

k. Transit of the packed collection to/from the off-site storage facility shall be by the Contractor-provided vehicle on road surfaces only. Ferry transit of vehicles is not permitted.

l. Objects shall be transported by the Contractor directly to/from the storage facility with no interruption of climate or security protection.

m. See Section 6 below for additional guidelines and requirements for the delivery of collection to off-site Contractor supplied storage facility.

n. See Section 7 below for additional guidelines and requirements for the transport of collections from off-site Contractor supplied storage to the Visitor Center.

5. Contractor shall supply:

a. All necessary supplies required for wrapping, packing and crating.

b. Any necessary heavy equipment such as a forklift and pallet jack.

c. Any necessary loading/unloading equipment such as ramps, dollies, carts, hand trucks and lifts, etc.

d. Any necessary hand tools required for fabricating/adjusting boxes and crates.

e. Power supply/Generator (if needed).

6. Contractor shall deliver collection to off-site Contractor facility.

a. All soft-wrapped, palletized and crated objects shall be delivered from Hopewell Furnace NHS by the Contractor staff and placed at the location specified by Harper’s Ferry Center staff.

b. Signed Bill of lading indicating received material at destination will be supplied to COR.

7. Contractor shall return the collections to the Visitor’s Center. Guidelines and requirements for the return of the collection are as follows:

a. The COR will provide no less than 30 days’ notice prior to the date when the move back to the Visitor’s Center may begin. The Contractor shall schedule the move back to NPS property within 15 days after the Government notifies them that the move back may begin.

b. All soft-wrapped, palletized and crated objects shall be removed from their packing materials by the Contractor staff and placed at the location specified by the COR. Contractor is responsible for removal and proper disposal of all packing materials from the site, unless otherwise determined otherwise by the COR.

c. In the event of damage to a collection object that is discovered when it is unpacked, the Contractor shall alert the CO and COR to the damage and take no further action until photo documentation has taken place.

ATTACHMENT ONE

Government Provided Support Service

In preparation for the move, the National Park Service staff will –

1. Verify that all objects are labeled prior to the move with an NPS catalog number in the format of park acronym (HOFU) followed by a sequential number that is marked on the object and/or on an archival-quality tag.

2. Provide daily on-site supervision during all phases of the move.

3. Provide the Contractor with a comprehensive list of all objects to be packed and moved to museum quality storage.

4. Provide the Contractor with a list of all special needs/handling objects. The curatorial staff is available to provide guidance concerning the known vulnerabilities of the objects.

Hopewell Furnace NHS Visitor’s Center Staging area

Figure 1. Staging area image1.png