PARC_Approved_JA_GIWW_Redacted.pdf

Control No. SWF 15-31

AFTER-THE FACT

JUSTIFICATION AND APPROVAL

FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION

1. Contracting Activity:

Department of the Army United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Directorate of Contracting, Fort Worth District (SWF) Galveston Execution Branch

2. Description of Action: This requirement is for an out-of-scope modification to the Firm Fixed Price (FFP) Contract No. W9126G-15-C-0015, competitively awarded to Orion Marine Construction, Inc. on 5 May 2015 in the amount of $2,967,500 for maintenance dredging of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway (GIWW) channel across Aransas Bay, Texas. Unanticipated shoaling due to recent heavy rains and flooding in Texas from Tropical Storm Bill has caused groundings of two barges and one towing vessel. Groundings of barge traffic in the GIWW can potentially result in a marine disaster such as a hazardous chemical release during and after grounding, loss of vessel maneuverability, and injury to personnel. Additionally, light loading of the barges in the GIWW to avoid additional groundings has a significant economic impact to the shipping industry. This contract modification will provide the most expedient response to remove two high shoal areas that are creating navigational hazards. The modification, in the amount of $1,612,396, utilized FY15 Operation and Maintenance funds.

3. Description of Supplies/Services: The GIWW is a 1,300-mile-long, manmade canal that runs along the Gulf of Mexico coastline from Texas' southernmost tip at Brownsville to St. Marks, Florida, linking all of the Gulf Coast ports and enabling the gulf coast states. to handle more than 50 percent of the waterway's traffic. The Texas portion extends for approximately 423 miles from Sabine River to Port Isabel, Texas, and serves as a critical link between the deep draft and shallow draft ports, refineries and chemical processing facilities while providing an interstate link for commodities transported in and out of the state. One of the primary functions of the GIWW was to provide protected inland transportation of goods and troops during World War II.

Since then, the waterway has expanded to accommodate commercial and recreational vessels and handles approximately 73 million tons of freight annually along the Texas portion alone, with an estimated value of $40.7 billion . If measured against all the nation's ports, the Texas portion of the GIWW would rank seventh in the nation with respect to total tonnage, according to the USACE Waterborne Commerce Statistic Center, http://www.navigationdatacenter.us . The USACE Galveston District (CESWG) is tasked with monitoring the channel conditions and maintaining sufficient depths within the Texas portion of the GIWW to facilitate marine traffic. This action will require removal of approximately 103,500 cubic yards (CY) of material from two hazardous high shoal locations on the GIWW using a pipeline cutterhead dredge. Approximately 66,500 CY of material will be dredged between station (sta) 695+000 and sta 700+000 at Caney Creek Crossing, and 37,000 CY between sta 587+600 and sta 589+000 east of Brazos River Flood Gate

(BRFG).

4. Authority Cited: This requirement is requested under the statutory authority of 10 U.S.C. 2304(c)(2), as implemented by FAR 6.302-2 and DFARS 206.302-2(b), Unusual and Compelling Urgency.

5. Reason for Authority Cited:

a. FAR 6.302-2(a)(2) and (b)(1) and (2) state in part that when the Agency’s need for the services is of such unusual and compelling urgency to preclude full and open competition and that the delay would result in serious injury, financial or other, to the U.S. Government, the agency is permitted to limit competition. The unusual and compelling urgency relates to unanticipated shoaling due to recent heavy rains and flooding in Texas from Tropical Storm Bill, between sta 695+000 and sta 700+000 at Caney Creek Crossing and sta 587+600 and sta 589+000 east of BRFG in the GIWW.

The Gulf Intracoastal Canal Association (GICA) notified USACE of multiple grounding incidents on 18 June 2015 of two barges and one towing vessel near the Caney Creek Crossing, and the Coast Guard issued a Broadcast Notice to Mariners (BNMs) to all mariners to take precaution while transiting this area (see Attachment A). Groundings of barge traffic in the GIWW can potentially result in a marine disaster such as a hazardous chemical release during and after grounding, loss of vessel maneuverability, increased chances of catastrophic ship and barge collisions and injury to personnel.

Also, light loading of the barges to avoid additional groundings has a significant economic impact to the shipping industry in the GIWW. The Galveston District is responsible to provide support to maintain the GIWW by keeping waterways open for navigation and commerce.

b. FAR 5.202(a)(2) provides the following exception to the mandatory publicizing and response time as specified in FAR 5.203: “The proposed contract action is made under conditions described in 6.302-2 (or, for purchases conducted using simplified acquisitions procedures, if unusual and compelling urgency precludes competition to the maximum extent practicable) and the Government would be seriously injured if the agency complies with the time periods specified in 5.203.” The mandatory publicizing and response time specified in FAR 5.203 would create an unacceptable delay in removing the unanticipated shoaling, due to the immediate need to remove the navigational hazards. The estimated cost of the urgent action can be minimized by competition (on a limited basis), and utilizing pipeline dredging firms in a reasonable vicinity to realize savings in mobilization costs. Furthermore, contractor and Government labor costs can be minimized through modification of an existing contract.

The justification will be posted on the Federal Business Opportunities website within 30 days after contract modification award in accordance with FAR 6.305(b).

c. Timeline of events supporting the unusual and compelling urgency:

1. 18 JUN 2015: Two barges and one towing vessel reported grounding at the

Caney Creek crossing.

2. 19 JUN 2015: The Coast Guard issued a Broadcast Notice to Mariners (BNMs) to all mariners to take precaution while transiting this area (see Attachment A).

3. 20 JUN 2015: Verbal approval received from PARC-Dallas to issue an out-of-scope modification to W9126G-15-C-0021 with RLB Contracting Inc. (RLB) under Unusual and Compelling Urgency for an initial estimated quantity of 250,000 CY at Caney Creek.

4. 22 JUN 2015: Proposal received from RLB and negotiations conducted.

5. 24 JUN 2015: Final Revised proposal received from RLB was found unacceptable due to proposed price and schedule.

6. 25 JUN 2015: Notification of additional shoal at BRFG was reported to USACE.

Verbal approval received from PARC-Dallas to cancel the previous RFP and re-solicit revised requirement for Caney Creek Crossing at a reduced template depth and add BRFG shoal location, under limited competition.

7. 25 JUN 2015: Issued new Request for Proposals (RFP) to RLB and Orion Marine Construction Inc. (Orion) under limited competition for a total 103,500 CY at the two high shoal locations of Caney Creek Crossing and BRFG.

8. 29 JUN 2015: Proposals were received from both offerors and evaluated.

9. 30 JUN 2015: The Contracting Officer determined that the proposal received from RLB was not the most highly rated, due to the proposed price and schedule. RLB was notified by the Contracting Officer that they were outside of the competitive range.

10.1 JUL 2015: Negotiations were held with Orion and a fair and reasonable price agreement was reached through comparison with the Independent Government Cost Estimate (IGCE) resulting in a modification to Contract No. W9126G-15-C- 0015 dated 1 JUL 2015.

Based upon the facts applicable to this acquisition, the use of other than full and open competition is justified for this requirement.

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: Three firms performing dredging services in the vicinity were initially identified as capable of mobilizing to the Caney Creek location to mitigate the navigational hazard by utilizing the MarineTraffic Automatic Identification System (AIS) at https://www.marinetraffic.com :

1) RLB Contracting Inc. (small business): Currently mobilizing to perform pipeline dredging under Contract No. W9126G-15-C-0021, and was scheduled to be enroute to the contracted location, sailing past the Caney Creek location, however strong currents delayed RLB from mobilizing as scheduled.

2) Manson Construction Inc. (large business): Currently working under Contract No.

W9126G-15-C-0092 performing dredging of the deep-draft Sabine Neches Water Way (SNWW) channel approximately 145 miles from the GIWW high shoal areas.

However, required additional time needed for reconfiguration of the dredge to perform work in a shallow-draft channel and mobilization from SNWW excluded Manson from further consideration, due to the need to mitigate the navigational hazard expeditiously.

3) Orion Marine Construction Inc. (large business): Currently working under Contract No. W9126G-15-C-0015 for GIWW maintenance dredging in Aransas Bay, Texas.

However, the current contract must be completed within the whooping crane environmental window and the PDT initially determined that additional dredging of 250,000 CY at the Caney Creek location would cause an unacceptable delay to the current contract.

Based on this analysis, the PDT determined that RLB would be best positioned to dredge the initial estimated quantity of 250,000 CY at Caney Creek through an out-of-scope modification to the current contract W9126G-15-C-0021, capable of mobilizing to the high shoal areas in the most expedient manner to mitigate the navigational hazard with the least mobilization cost to the Government.

However, additional hydrographic survey information indicated that most immediate dredging need reduced the minimum requirement at Caney Creek crossing from 250,000 CY to 66,500 CY. Additionally, another nearby navigational hazard was identified east of BRFG, with an estimated requirement of 37,000 CY, for a total new requirement of 103,500 CY at both high shoal locations.

Based on the revised total urgent requirement of 103,500 CY, after excluding RLB from further consideration, the PDT determined that Orion would also be capable of performance without negatively impacting the current contract schedule to meet the environmental window. Therefore, the RFP to RLB for the initial requirement of 250,000 CY was cancelled and a new RFP was issued under limited competition for an out of scope modification for the revised requirement of 103,500 CY to both RLB and Orion under their respective contracts.

7. Actions to Increase Competition: For future regular maintenance pipeline dredging requirements, CECT-SWF will continue to obtain competition, through posting sources sought announcements in FedBizOpps, reviewing Government and commercial databases that provide information relevant to the requirement, and reviewing source lists of similar items from other contracting activities.

However, the urgency of this action prevents additional actions to increase competition as this would cause an unacceptable delay in award to address the navigational hazards created by the unanticipated shoaling.

8. Market Research: Market Research was conducted, see paragraph 6 above. The Government took into consideration known contractor pipeline dredges in the vicinity and availability in the analysis of alternatives.

9. Interested Sources: The Marine Traffic AIS identified that there no other known firms in the vicinity with the equipment and plant to perform shallow draft pipeline dredging work in area of the high shoal locations, other than the firms listed in paragraph 6 above. Therefore, it is not expected that the mandatory publicizing and response time specified in FAR 5.203 would produce any additional sources for this urgent action, and would create an unacceptable delay in removing the unanticipated shoaling, due to the immediate need to remove the navigational hazards.

10. Other Facts: A separate solicitation is currently being developed that will dredge the GIWW at the Caney Creek Crossing and the Brazos River Flood Gate areas to full template depth, under competitive contracting procedures.

11. Technical Certification: “I certify that the supporting data under my cognizance, which are included in the justification, are accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.”

Name: Date: ________________________

Title: Chief, Navigation Branch Signature:

12. Requirements Certification: “I certify that the supporting data under my cognizance, which are included in the justification, are accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.”

Name: Date: ________________________

Title: Chief, Operations Division Signature:

13. Fair and Reasonable Cost Determination: “I hereby determine that the cost to the Government for this contract action was fair and reasonable.” The price reasonableness was based upon the price proposal received and the IGCE, as detailed in the Price Negotiation Memorandum (PNM) dated 1 July 2015. In addition, certified Cost and Pricing Data was received and analyzed.

Name: Date: ________________________

Title: Contracting Officer Signature:

14. Contracting Officer Certification: “I certify that this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Name: Date: ________________________

Title: Contracting Officer Signature

APPROVAL

Based on the foregoing justification, I hereby approve the out-of-scope modification on Contract No. W9126G-15-C-0015 to Orion Marine Construction Inc. to add dredging to remove hazardous shoals between Gulf Intracoastal Waterway (GIWW) sta 695+000 and sta 700+000 (Caney Creek Crossing) and between GIWW sta 587+600 and sta 589+000 (BRFG) on an other than full and open competition basis pursuant to the authority of 10 U.S.C. 2304 (c) (2) and provided that the services herein described have otherwise been authorized for acquisition.

_________ __ DATE:_________________________

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