VAAL Vendor Questions and Government Answers 26 Nov 2019.pdf

Responses to Submitted Questions

W912DW20R0004

Per the posting for W912DW20R0004, questions received by the Government by Monday, 25 November have been reviewed and addressed below.

QUESTION 1: Given the Thanksgiving Holiday falls between the posted date and response date, would the Government be willing to extend the response date to Dec. 13?

ANSWER 1: After considering the Thanksgiving Holiday and the transition from FedBizOps to beta.SAM.gov, the Government decided to extend the response date until 2pm local time on Monday, 16 December 2019.

QUESTION 2: Does the page count exclude the covers, letter, and tabs?

ANSWER 2: Any page with substantial content (i.e., cover letter, Part I forms) will count toward the 80 page limit. Pages included for formatting/ease of navigation (i.e., cover, table of contents, tabs) will not count toward the 80 printed page limit.

QUESTION 3: There is no formal licensing program for an Architectural Historian but rather a combination of education (graduate degree) and demonstrated experience in the field. Would a recognized professional Historian be acceptable?

ANSWER 3: A professional historian would not be considered acceptable during the evaluation.

The criterion remains unchanged and requires that the Historic Architect be a Registered Architect with demonstrated experience with historic preservation. Architects who specialize in Historic Preservation not only have the technical understanding of building design and construction, but the experience necessary in order to maintain and preserve historic building design and construction elements. A historian, who may be versed in the architectural design features of a certain period, may not necessarily share the expertise about these features as it relates to direct design and construction experience in rehabilitation and preservation utilizing appropriate means, methods, materials, and craftsmanship.

QUESTION 4: As we assemble our full team to meet the requirements of the solicitation, we are getting our small business partners on board. As it turns out, a number of the firms with whom we already have working relationships are currently working together on the Project Book portion of the project (VA Contract No. 36C26018D0041, Task Order No. 36C10F19N0068).

This situation has arisen before with the VA Major project at Fort Harrison, MT, as well as the Major Project at St. Louis. In those cases, the Omaha USACE Office and the Kansas City USACE Office, respectively, each determined that there was NO organizational conflict of interest and the firms who worked on the project book tasks for each of those projects WERE eligible to participate on the design teams as well.

It is very critical that we make sure there is no OCI as we go forward.

ANSWER 4: The Government has determined that there is no conflict of interest for a firm that collects information and defines requirements for the Project Book to also provide the full design. Therefore, it is acceptable for a team to include firms that are contracted under the VA Project Book award (VA Contract No. 36C26018D0041, Task Order No. 36C10F19N0068).

QUESTION 5: Primary Criterion B – Interior design is critical to the successful outcome of a patient centered care environment. This discipline has not been identified as one to be included in Section E. What is the expectation for providing this scope of work? Additionally, LEED Projects typically include a specific qualified Sustainable Design Coordinator to lead the integrated design process. Should the key personnel for this discipline be identified?

ANSWER 5: The Government will only evaluate qualifications for the disciplines posted in the synopsis. The Government recognizes that this is not a comprehensive list of the disciplines needed to complete the requirement, but rather a list of those the Government finds most important.