B01.01 Combined Synopsis Solicitation - AIS Toxic Speciate Compilation - Revised 2024.02.15.docx

REPLY TO

ATTENTION OF

Department of the Army

U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS

HUMPHREYS ENGINEER CENTER SUPPORT ACTIVITY

7701 TELEGRAPH ROAD

ALEXANDRIA, VA 22315-3860

Contracting Office: CEHEC-CT 15 FEB 2024

Requirement Title: Professional Services to Incorporate AIS Vessel Tracking Information and Compilation of Toxic Organic & Metallic Speciate Inventories for Deep-Draft Emissions Modelling

General Information:

This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial items prepared in accordance with the format in FAR 12.603 – Streamlined Solicitation for Commercial Items, as supplemented with additional information included in this notice and FAR Part 13 procedures. This announcement constitutes the only solicitation. Offers are being requested and a written solicitation will not be issued. This solicitation document and incorporated provisions and clauses are those in effect through Federal Acquisition Circular 2024-02, dated 22 December 2023.

The North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS) code for this acquisition is 541715 - Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences: with a size standard of 1,000 employees.

Enclosed is a Performance Work Statement (PWS) entitled “Professional Services to Incorporate AIS Vessel Tracking Information and Compilation of Toxic Organic & Metallic Speciate Inventories for Deep-Draft Emissions Modelling - 2023”. The anticipated contract will be a Firm-Fixed Price Commercial Service Contract. The base period of performance is anticipated to be 290 days from the date of contract award. An option task is included that may extend the period of performance to 340 days from date of contract award.

A Firm Fixed Priced (FFP) contract award will be made in accordance with the following:

Proposal Submittal Instructions:

Upon receipt of the electronic offer, the Government will acknowledge receipt of that offer via email to the Offeror.

Questions/Inquiries:

All questions must be received by Wednesday 17 January 2024, 4:30 pm eastern US. Proposals must be received no later than Wednesday 31 January 2024, 4:30 pm eastern US. Electronic proposals submitted via email are required. All questions and proposals shall be sent to the Contract Specialist, Bart Dziadosz (email address above) and a copy furnished to the Contracting Officer, David A. Kaplan (email address above)

Background: The Institute for Water Resources of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE-IWR) is involved in a array of initiatives to support assessment of environmental impacts from its activities and impacts associated with the water resources projects that it constructs and maintains across various business lines including flood risk management, hydropower, waterborne navigation of the nation’s inland and coastal waterway systems.

Accurate estimates of air emissions commercial marine vessels (CMVs) are needed to support assessment of environmental priorities and monitor progress toward national and international emission reduction goals with port community development. CMVs represent a significant portion of mobile source emissions for greenhouse gases, criteria pollutants and toxics compounds, negatively impacting communities adjacent to ports and navigable waterways.

Most current emissions models for CMVs estimate emissions based on generalized assumptions and highly aggregated parameters for vessel geometry, powering configuration, and operating practices. In order to improve the current state-of-art modeling techniques, the Institute for Water Resources (IWR) has developed the Vessel Emissions Model (VEM) based on representative hull geometries and curvature appropriate for representative vessel types, typical vessel size or displacement, and rated operating speeds.

Scope: The next phase for improvement in capabilities of the VEM model is to move forward with the integration of AIS data and information. Doing so will support improved determination as to operational mode at any given time of vessel activity or movement and allow more discrimination application of the model’s capabilities for assessment of emissions according to parameters such as speed, maneuvering, and dockside activities over time and the timing of vessel operations. This of particular value for the varying modes of vessel operation in and around the geographical areas of port and their communities. Additional robustness to model application could be achieved by adding currently available Hazardous Air Pollutant (HAP) profiles to the existing model’s emissions output or estimations to quantify releases of dangerous or harmful organic gaseous and metallic compounds. Respective pollutant data can then be displayed employing geographic information system (GIS) tools to identify pollution concentrations and hotspots as well as determination of vessel types and sizes that are significant contributors to local air quality concerns, including address of environmental justice (EJ) for impacted communities and ports. Among the tangible deliverables needed to support accomplishment of GIS-enhanced emissions modeling efforts, the following listing or outline is offered:

· Compilation of GIS data provided in a format suitable or appropriate for efficient intake by the VEM model.

· Compilation of vessel attribute data that aligns with the AIS data versus VEM reference hulls.

· Quality-checked and verification criteria for pollutant emissions output from the VEM model.

· Improved speciation profiling for marine diesel engines based on distillate versus non-distillate fuels and alternative measures for emissions reduction or control combined with more discriminating assessment of mode of vessel operation.

· Enhancement of VEM model out with application of speciation profiles to VEM algorithms

· GIS mapping and visualization of pollutant concentrations and hotspots in perspective to adjacent communities for environmental justice.

· Documentation of technical\analytical process and summarization of results.

Deliverables and Schedule:

Period of Performance:

The period of performance is stated per each task.

Place of Performance:

The contractor shall perform all services at their own location. Some travel may be required. See the Performance Work Statement (PWS) for additional information.

Instructions to Offerors:

Technical Proposal: Offeror’s must provide a technical proposal of no more than 30 pages (page count does not include a cover sheet, table of content, or key personnel resumes) detailing the Contractor’s qualifications and details how the Contractor will perform the required services to meet the required levels of quality in accordance with the attached Performance Work Statement. The Contractor must provide a work breakdown structure detailing the quantity of labor hours to be used per each labor category per each task. The Contractor should provide information about any assumptions or limitations in their technical proposal.

Insurance: Prior to starting work you must provide us with proof of Liability, Worker Comp, and Automotive Insurance for any work performed here, in accordance with FAR 52.228-5, Insurance – Work on a Government Installation.

Price Proposal: Please submit a price proposal displaying the work breakdown structure per each task. Please detail the quantity of labor hours to be used per each labor category per each task and include the hourly labor rate for each labor category. Please detail the sub-total cost per each task. Please include the grand total to complete all of the required services in accordance with the attached Performance Work Statement.

Personnel: All contractor employees with access to a government info system must be registered in the Army Training Certification Tracking System (ATCTS) at commencement of services, and must successfully complete the DOD Information Assurance Awareness prior to access to the information systems and then annually thereafter in accordance with personnel security standards listed in AR 25-2 (Information Assurance), an appropriate background investigation will be conducted prior to accessing the government information systems

Proposal Preparation Instructions:

52.212-1 ADDENDUM - INSTRUCTIONS TO OFFERORS – COMMERCIAL ITEMS (Jan 2017) To ensure timely and equitable evaluation of quotes, offerors must comply with instructions contained herein. Offers must be complete, detailed and respond directly to the requirements of this solicitation.

a. Please submit a signed and dated offer on company letterhead with unit prices, extended prices, discount terms, tax identification number, CAGE code, and SAM Unique Identifier in response to this solicitation. The requirements of this synopsis/solicitation, including specification, "Schedule of Supplies/Services" and terms and conditions, the offeror agrees to all solicitation requirements. Offerors must clearly identify any exception to the solicitation terms and conditions and provide complete accompanying rationale.

b. All offer information shall be emailed to Mr. David A. Kaplan, Contracting Officer at email: David.A.Kaplan@usace.army.mil and Mr. Bart Dziadosz, Contract Specialist at Bartholomew.Dziadosz@usace.army.mil The proposal must be signed and dated by an authorized official of the company. Electronic submissions via e-mail are required.

c. Offerors must provide price information in addition to the subtotal for each Task and the total price to complete the required services. Price information must include the hourly rate (fully burdened) proposed for each labor category and the quantity of labor hours per each labor category per each task.

d. To be eligible to receive an award resulting from this Combined Synopsis Solicitation, Contractors must be registered in the System for Award Management (SAM) database, no exceptions. To register, please visit http://www.sam.gov.

e. Offer Content: See PWS and technical/price proposal above.

Contract Terms and Conditions:

The following provisions and clauses apply to this acquisition and can be viewed electronically at https://www.acquisition.gov/ in accordance with 52.252-1. The use in this solicitation of any Department of Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (48 CFR Chapter 2) provision with an authorized deviation is indicated by the addition of "(DEVIATION)" after the name of the regulation.

Basis for Award:

The following factors will be used to determine which offer receives a contract award. Award will be made on the basis of best value to the Government.

All evaluation factors other than cost or price, when combined, are significantly more important than cost or price.

Technical Proposal – Volume I (Factors 1 – 3):

Limit your technical proposal to a total of thirty (30) pages. If more pages are needed, please request permission from the Contracting Officer.

Factor 1: Technical Understanding and Approach

1. Describe your approach to assure successful completion of the contract. Discuss technical issues/risks inherent in this type of task and explain how your team will minimize these risks.

1. Describe the roles, responsibilities, and level of involvement of the prime contractor and proposed subcontractors. Explain how you intend to manage this contract.

1. Describe how your company will maintain quality on this contract by detailing actions and processes used to ensure products and services you provide conform to PWS requirements.

Factor 2: Task Staffing and Level of Effort

1. Per each task (and subtask where applicable), provide a breakdown detailing the proposed level of effort (hours per each Labor Category) and the team composition (prime and subcontractors) using appropriate labor categories. Provide the details relative to the roles, responsibilities, and level of involvement of each proposed individual. Include a rationale as to the appropriateness of the skill mix and team composition to satisfy task requirements. In addition to satisfying the labor category requirements specified in the contract, your proposed staff must have experience/expertise in the areas covered in the PWS.

1. Provide resumes for any proposed Key Personnel that clearly demonstrates the education, training, and experience of the proposed individuals relevant to the tasks in the PWS.

Factor 3: Past Performance

Each proposal will be evaluated on how closely past performance relates to the tasks in the PWS (i.e., is similar in scope and complexity to the tasks in the PWS) and how well experience resulting from past performance would enable the contractor to complete the tasks in the PWS. Technical skills demonstrated through past performance will be evaluated with a higher weight than experience with business line subject matter.

Higher past performance ratings will be given for past technical performance that is more closely related to the technical requirements of the PWS. Exhibits of quality and timely technical performance, as well as innovation, will also be merited. A minimum of 1 and a maximum of 3 examples of Past Performance should be submitted. Past Performance examples must be no older than 3 years prior to the date of the solicitation. Work in-progress may be submitted for Past Performance, provided that the work is at least 50% complete.

Factor 4: Price

The price factor will be evaluated using price analysis techniques described at FAR 15.404-1(b), primarily consisting of comparison of competitive offers received in response to the solicitation and to the IGE. Prices found to be unreasonably high or low may reflect a lack of understanding of the requirement and may result in an unfavorable rating. Proposed prices will be evaluated for unbalanced pricing. The Government will evaluate price proposals based upon a Total Evaluated Price. For requirements that include Option Periods or Option Tasks, Price will be evaluated in accordance with FAR 52.217-5.

For pricing purposes, you should assume an estimated start date of 20 February 2024.

The order of importance of the factors is as follows: Factor 1 is more important than Factor 2 which is more important than Factor 3.

All evaluation factors other than cost or price, when combined, are significantly more important than cost or price.

The Technical Factors (other than Past Performance) will be rated using the following adjectival ratings:

UNACCEPTABLE

Proposal does not meet requirements of the solicitation and, thus, contains one or more deficiencies or significant weaknesses, and is unawardable, and/or risk of performance is unacceptably high.

The Past Performance Factor will be rated using the following adjectival ratings:

Neutral Confidence No recent/relevant performance record is available or the offeror’s performance record is so sparse that no meaningful confidence assessment rating can be reasonably assigned. The offeror may not be evaluated favorably or unfavorably on the factor of past performance.

Limited Confidence Based on the offeror’s recent/relevant performance record, the Government has a low expectation that the offeror will successfully perform the required effort.

No Confidence Based on the offeror’s recent/relevant performance record, the Government has no expectation that the offeror will be able to successfully perform the required effort.

To be eligible for award, offerors must receive ratings of no less than “Acceptable” for the Technical Factors and no less than “Neutral Confidence” for the Past Performance Factor and must submit a fair and reasonable price.

The Following Provisions and Clauses Are Incorporated by Full Text:

FAR 52.212-3 ALT I Offeror Representations and Certifications -- Commercial Items is incorporated by reference in this combine synopsis and solicitation. Offerors must include a statement that certifies the Offeror’s Representations and Certifications are up to date in System for Award management.

FAR 52.212-5 Contract Terms and Conditions Required to Implement Statutes or Executive Orders.

The following FAR Clauses cited within FAR 52.212-5 are applicable to this acquisition:

End of FAR clauses. See DFARS clauses on the page below.

The following FAR and DFARS Clauses are applicable to this acquisition in addition to those above in the table for clauses within FAR 52.212-5.

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