W9127824B0004 Consolidation DF - 27-30inch Cutterhead Pipeline Dredge (AL MS FL)_Redacted.pdf

2. Description of Procurement Action:

a. Project Description:

(1) The Mobile District is tasked with maintaining area harbors, rivers, waterways, channels, and bays within Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida. Among these are requirements for deep draft dredging of Federal navigation channels. For over ten years, Mobile District has utilized civil works funded, multi-year IDIQ SATOCs to provide flexible and effective management of deep channel dredging requirements on both a scheduled and an as-needed basis.

Each project is assigned a Project Delivery Team (PDT) comprised of various organizational elements within the District that provides operations, technical, contracting, legal, and resource management services to support the project.

(2) The purpose of this acquisition is to provide a contracting tool to support the Mobile District’s need to perform annual maintenance dredging at various shoaling locations of the Federal navigation projects of Gulfport, Pascagoula, Mobile, Pensacola, and Panama City Harbors. These dredging locations will be identified based on channel conditions and the need to restore specific reaches to their project depth. The solicitation will be advertised as unrestricted, and the contract duration will be fourteen months with a maximum capacity of Mobile District intends to consolidate these dredging requirements into one solicitation to be awarded to one contractor. The projects which Mobile District maintains are funded on an annual or biannual basis.

Due to the need to sustain existing civil works projects, Mobile District does not anticipate current or future budget limitations to impact this program.

b. Acquisition Strategy/Procurement Summary: To meet the demanding requirements for maintenance dredging at various shoaling locations of the Federal navigation projects of Gulfport, Pascagoula, Mobile, Pensacola, Panama City Harbors, the District intends to award an unrestricted IDIQ SATOC. This consolidated procurement will be advertised as an unrestricted, Firm Fixed Price, Invitation for Bid (IFB) with a maximum contract capacity of . The construction duration will be fourteen months and no options are anticipated. An IDIQ SATOC is the most effective manner to meet the above requirements for several reasons including that this acquisition approach will efficiently facilitate the District’s management of maintenance dredging in the prescribed Federal navigation projects, and that it will position the District to successfully meet urgent and end of fiscal year requirements or respond to emergency situations. While the funding for dredging is “no-year” money, the Mobile District Operations Division is allotted a specific amount per fiscal year and nearly all those funds are expended. The use of a SATOC tool is in the best interest of the Government with respect to timeliness, oversight, and administrative costs.

c. Applicability of Consolidation: As stated above, Sec 1671 of the fiscal year 2013

National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) amended the definition of consolidation as set forth in Sec 44 of the Small Business Act, 15 U.S.C. § 657q., and as implemented in FAR 2.101, “consolidation or consolidation requirements” means the use of a solicitation for a single award contract, a multiple award contract, a task order, or a delivery order to satisfy (i) two or more requirements of the Federal Agency for supplies or services that have been provided to or performed for the Federal agency under two or more separate contracts, each of which was lower in cost than the total cost of the contract for which offers are solicited; or (ii) requirements of the Federal agency for construction projects to be performed at two or more discrete sites. The definition applies to this procurement because a SATOC will be used to perform multiple construction projects, awarded on individual task orders, at two or more discrete dredging sites in Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida.

Based on procurement history, the targeted pool of contractors is fully capable of performing the consolidated requirement and their ability to compete will not be negatively impacted by this approach. Based on both the market research and extensive knowledge of the major players within this industry, the Mobile District is confident that no small businesses exist that can perform the requirement whether it is consolidated or not. Therefore, given the magnitude of the project and the limited pool of contractors, the benefits of consolidation outweigh any negative impact to small businesses and enhances competition.

5. Alternate Contracting Approaches Considered and Rationale for Rejection: The Mobile District considered alternative contracting approaches including multiple consolidated SATOCs (one per state) and to a lesser degree a stand-alone “C” type contract. Multiple SATOCs (issuing one per state) would be nearly equivalent to using a “C” type contract for each harbor, given that the scope of this award would cover only five harbors: (1) Gulfport, MS; (2) Pascagoula, MS; (3) Mobile, AL; (4) Pensacola, FL; (5) Panama City. The stand-alone contract, one for each harbor, is rejected due to the mobilization/demobilization and scheduling impacts identified below. A Multiple Award Task Order Contract (MATOC) approach is not considered as a viable alternative because it would not represent a lesser degree of consolidation and would not achieve the mobilization/demobilization savings possible with a single contractor.

a. Alternative: Stand-Alone “C” Type Contracts (SATOCs): The District considered the award of multiple stand-alone “C” type contracts to perform the required maintenance dredging work. While this approach could provide a lesser degree of consolidation, or no consolidation at all if individual contracts are awarded for single requirements, the disadvantages of the SATOC approach substantially exceed the advantages of consolidation for the reasons outlined below. As discussed in Section 4 – Results of Market Research, there is a very limited known pool of contractors who are capable of performing the required scope of work, and most of those contractors are engaged in other maintenance dredging operations nationally, so competition can be very limited.

(1) Quality: While “C” contract competitions generally give the Government the opportunity to avail itself of a wider range of potential contractors for each project, that does not necessarily hold true for dredging because of the limited contractor base and capacity from which to pull. As indicated earlier, only three contractors have responded to IFBs historically. Moreover, as also noted above, the iterative process of working with one contractor under a SATOC tends to generate a more thorough shared understanding between the contractor and Government for the Government's requirements and procedures.

(2) Acquisition Cycle: Civil works funds are not tied to a specific fiscal year appropriation and is not a substantial factor in determining requirements; however, while the funding does not generally expire, if they are not expended, the following fiscal years may see a reduction in overall civil works funds available to the district. It is beneficial for the district to have a contract vehicle that allows expedient funding for task order awards. The District addresses this budgetary uncertainty with regular IDIQ acquisition actions to create capacity to accomplish a customer’s known requirements, and to respond to those that arrive on short-notice.

(a) In addition to building capacity, the use of task orders under a SATOC streamlines the procurement process under a regimen that is significantly more expeditious than a “C” contract scheme. Specifically, task orders under a SATOC do not require advance notice, voluminous solicitations and proposal submissions, and the evaluations can be streamlined. As performing this work. There are known dredging contractors with the ability and equipment to perform this work, all of which are large businesses and who historically bid on contracts for work within the Mobile District. These contractors are

Although only of these contractors responded to the market research, the District fully expects all these contractors to bid on this contract because the scope of work is the same as it has been in past years. Additionally, the District has no information nor has received any comments from the dredging community to suggest that placing each navigation project under separate contracts, or regrouping them in some other manner, would create interest and allow other contractors to perform this work.

7. Considerations, Facts, and Reasoning Supporting the Determination: All facts, considerations and rationale have been covered previously in the findings. This D&F will be included with The Small Business Coordination Record (DD Form 2579) for the approval of the Deputy for Small Business and SBA Procurement Center Representative.

8. Summary: Although this unrestricted IDIQ SATOC constitutes consolidation in that it combines construction at two or more discrete sites in one contract, this approach provides the best combination of competitive procedures, timely acquisition, cost efficiency, quality, and capable prime contractors to execute maintenance dredging for District deep draft navigation channels. The quantifiable benefits of consolidation, of the estimated contract value, exceed the standard in FAR 7.107-2(d)(1)(i) and are further supplemented by the qualitative benefits. Stand alone “C-Type” contracts were considered but would result in significantly higher costs and increased acquisition cycle time. Additionally, it is significantly less burdensome for the District’s Contracting and Operations Divisions to administer one SATOC contracts than numerous “C” contracts. The findings of the market research and the documentation provided herein support the conclusion that consolidation of requirements is both necessary and justified based on sound business judgment in view of the size, complexity, and potential number of efforts to be executed. The consolidated approach provides substantial quantitative and qualitative advantages that far outweigh those of an approach that utilizes a lesser degree of consolidation.

Attachment 1 – Deep Draft Navigation Projects Locations