Questions Answers W912EP24R0006_Final 10JAN24.pdf

DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY

U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS, TASK FORCE VIRGIN ISLANDS PUERTO RICO

FUNDACIÓN A. RAMOS, ANNEX BLDG 202

383 FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT AVE

SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO 00918

CESAJ-TFC-T January 10, 2024

SUBJECT: W912EP-24-R-0006, Indefinite Delivery Contract for Geotechnical Core Drilling and Laboratory Testing for Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Caribbean Area, Questions & Answers

1. Does the total page count of 50 pages include the JV agreement?

Government Response: JV agreements may be submitted as separate attachments.

50 page limit does then not include the JV.

2. Q2. Is SF330-I and SF330-II combined limited to 50 pages? If yes, then where should we include the letter of recommendations, CPARS/PPQ, JV agreement?

Government Response: CPARS and JV agreement may both be separate attachments. Letters of recommendations may be placed within Section H.

3. Does the requirement for 10 projects allow 10 projects submitted for the Prime and 10 projects submitted for the subcontractor?

Government Response: Only 10 projects total, which could be any combination of prime and subcontractors. However, 6 of the 10 project must be performed by the Prime contractor.

4. What section of the SF 330 does CPARS go? Part I or Part II?

Government Response: CPARS is generally discussed with Past Performance in SF 330 Part I, Section H. However, CPARS may be uploaded as a separate attachment.

5. In SF330 Part I Section H (Additional Information), are you looking for something specific? perhaps additional relevant projects, or details about our company (quantity and experience of drilling crew members, quantity drilling equipment, laboratory testing accreditations, etc.)?

CESAJ-TFZ

SUBJECT: Task Force Virgin Islands Puerto Rico (TF VIPR) Coin Request

Government Response: The specific information in Section H includes the information requested in the Solicitation that is not explicitly entered into the other SF330 Sections.

6. Are SF330 resumes limited to 1 page?

Government Response:

Solicitation indicates that resumes are limited to 3 pages.

7. The solicitation states that resumes must include "past and recent (within last 5 yrs)" of relevant experience. Can "past" experience projects exceed 10 yrs?

Government Response: Resumes may include experience past 5 years, however, resumes must demonstrate recent and relevant experience for the disciplines specified in the synopsis.

8. Drilling - Our firm has specialized experience and expertise in ALL the forms of soil and rock drilling, SPT testing, etc, that we have done for USACE projects and other projects in PR except for sonic drilling. In our 40+ years of experience, sonic drilling has never been requested by our Clients. The question is if we have to identify and name the organization that we would use to perform sonic drilling now for the proposal, or is this an item that can be left for when a sonic drilling task is required. The reason is that at this time one does not have the information as to how much sonic drilling will be required and thus the firm or subcontractor that we would contract with for sonic drilling would depend on the scope of the project.

Government Response: Proposal should identify all key personnel as per the solicitation.

9. Regarding laboratory soil and rock testing to be done outside of our own lab, such as Triaxial strength tests, we would use one of the commercially available labs in the US mainland that are dedicated strictly conducting laboratory soil tests, such as Geotesting Express in Acton, MA, whom we use regularly. The question is if such commercially available testing organizations have to be included in our proposal or if it is understood that if we may use them as part of our normal course of business, and they do not have to be specifically named at this time. One may use one or another testing firm, depending on the tests requested or the scheduling requirements. They would be USACE validated labs, of course.

Government Response: All laboratories that are proposed to possibly be used should be listed, and USACE validated laboratories should be utilized.

10. Regarding the qualified professional personnel, our professionals are in the geotechnical engineering and professional geologist disciplines. We would be using personnel that we do not have in our organization such as geophysicist or ydrogeologist, chemist. under subcontract, and these will be identified. The question is if one or more of such subcontracted individuals are from a large, non-small business firm, with whom we have worked before, and we do the subcontracting through the firm, will this be a limitation given that this is a Small business set-aside contract.

Government Response: Subcontracting to an other-than-small-business does not impact a firm’s small business status. However, please be aware that in accordance with FAR 52.219-14(e)(1), more than 50 percent of the work cannot be subcontracted.

11. Can you identify in what other countries in the Caribbean, besides the USVI, the task orders may be issued?

Government Response: At this time, this solicitation applies to the area of responsibility for the Jacksonville District: Puerto Rico and USVI, and not other Caribbean nations.

12. Will the main performance be done from Florida, is there already equipment staged in the other areas (US Virgin Islands, PR and Carribean) or will we have to mobilize and transport equipment to those locations. Any other specifics on the performance requirements (work, daily tasks etc.) would be greatly appreciated.

Government Response: The majority of the performance is intended for Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. The suitability of any equipment available for use on Puerto Rico and US Virgin Islands is a determination that prospective bidders are responsible to make. The contractor will be responsible for determining the means and methods to accomplish Geotechnical Investigation at locations on Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.

13. As the holidays season has just ended and the pre-proposal meeting was completed on January 3rd with the follow up questions due to the Government by January 5th.

If we tentatively get the responses from the government on January 8th, we would be having only 8 days of time to provide the response. Can you please consider changing the response date from January 16th to January 29th (with an extension of an additional 8 business days)?

Government Response: An extension will only be granted to 22 January 2024.