W9133L-21-R-6000 - Fire Suppression - RFI Responses 32 - 38 (22 June 2021).pdf

RFI

Question Answer Amend No./ Clarification

(C) 32 Criteria F 4 – Please clarify this requirement.

a.Why are the 10 FEMA regions being used versus National Guard regions?

b.For a location to count, do all 9 core disciplines listed in Criteria A need to be in the same office or within 50 miles of that office? What if the prime and subcontractor have multiple offices within a specific region but are not within 50 miles of each other. Will these count?

a.The FEMA regions are more commonly used than the National Guard regions. Criteria F is secondary criteria and is only utilizied in tiebreaker scenerios. b1. Yes, as stated in the synopsis the CORE DISCIPLINES ONLY are required to be located in the same office or within a proximity of fewer than 50miles from the states within this region. b2.

Subcontracting services not related to core disciplines can be located in different regions.

C

33 The solicitation states “to avoid a conflict of interest, any contractor proposing as a prime may not have a subcontractor who is also proposing as a prime”. Please explain how this is a conflict of interest? As fire protection engineering is a small discipline, this will effectively eliminate some firms from proposing as a prime.

The Government wants maximum coordination within the Contractor community while obtaining maximum competition for the prime contractor. In addition, if firms are proposed as a prime in a proposal and a subcontractor in a separate proposal, that firm will effectively be competing against themselves. In order to maintain diverse competition, firms shall only be part of one team.

C

34 Criteria E Knowledge of the locality of the project areas.

As the scope of this solicitation includes the United States and its Territories. it will be exceedingly lengthy to “briefly summarize” local conditions and familiarity with the defined local area construction industry in all 50 states and territories. Can you please describe what is meant by “local conditions” ( does it mean installation, county, state, region, or territory)?

See Amendment No. 03 Amendment No.

35 Please clarify the requirement to provide “local knowledge” for a contract that covers National Guard installations across FEMA’s 10 regions and throughout the U.S. and territories. Would you please define “local” in this case? Is the Government looking for examples across a few National Guard locations?

Criteria E – Knowledge of the locality of the project areas within the United States and Territories (SF330, Part I, Section H). All contract work is to be performed within the United States and Territories. In SF330 Part I, Section H, describe and demonstrate the team’s familiarity with design requirements applicable to National Guard locations.

(1) Submit a map demonstrating locations where design work has been performed in the past by the Fire Protection Engineers on your proposed team (for this section only, there is no year recency limitation for these projects) Identify fire suppression projects by one color and high expansion foam (i.e. HEF/AFFF) projects by another color. Briefly summarize your team’s specific knowledge of fire protection local conditions encountered, approach to seismic conditions and bracing requirements, structural assumptions and concerns, and knowledge of State and local building codes and practices.

(2) Describe the extent of your familiarity with the defined local area construction industry expertise and its standard practices. List construction contractors with references from within the specified region for whom you have been contracted with as the Designer of Record on a Design-Build project, or for whom you have been contracted for Type C/construction administration services by a third party.

See Amendment No. 03 Amendment No.

36 Under Criteria F, Question 4, it states “Firms based in or having branch offices within each of the 10 Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) regions with core disciplines (full-service) including fire protection, mechanical, civil, electrical, and structural engineers working in the same office or within a proximity of fewer than 50 miles from the states within this region will be considered as meeting the requirement for geographical proximity.” Although this is a fire protection engineering focused IDIQ, is the intent/desire for firms to have full-service, core discipline teams represented in each of the 10 FEMA regions working in the same office or within a proximity of fewer than 50 miles from the states within each region? If a firm does not have offices in all 10 FEMA regions, will this count against us meeting the criteria?

Criteria F is secondary criteria and is only utilized in tiebreaker scenarios. As stated in the synopsis the core disciplines are required to be in close proximity to meet this secondary criteria. The Government is utilizing the FEMA regions for uniformity. The government is not requiring a firm to have offices in all 10 FEMA regions but more consideration may be given for those firms that have offices across more FEMA regions.

C

37 Under Criteria E, Question 2, it states “Describe the extent of your familiarity with the defined local area construction industry expertise and its standard practices. List construction contractors with references from within the specified region for whom you have been contracted with as the Designer of Record on a Design- Build project, or for whom you have been contracted for Type C/construction administration services by a third party.” Since this is a nationwide contract, how do we define the local area construction industry? Is the desire to for Firms to list contractors for every FEMA Region? Is this question appropriate for a nationwide IDIQ? Can this question be removed?

See Amendment No. 03 Amendment No.

38 We would prefer to include National Guard projects for your consideration; however we have not received CPARS ratings for most National Guard projects that we have completed. We respectfully request a 2-week extension so that we may request Past Performance Questionnaires for the five projects provided in Section F or that the requirement for past performance be removed from the solicitation.

Criteria D –Past Performance (SF330, Part I, Section H): Firms must provide relevant past performance in the accomplishment of similar work……

See Amendment No. 02 and 03 Amendment No.

02 and 03

FIRE SUPPRESSION

Synopsis RFIs

Solicitation No. W9133L-21-R-6000 (22 June 2021)