HR1_RFI Responses 16-42.pdf

RFI

Beta

SAM

No. RFI Text KO Response

Amend No./ Clarification (C)

Change Reference Paragraph

Unlike what was included within Criteria B for the Vertical Region 1 solicitation, it was noted in the Horizontal Region 1 solicitation that Criteria B did not include the requirement to ”Demonstrate experience and familiarity with Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Part 77 and preparing FAA 7460 permit applications relating to construction projects…”. As Air National Guard flying missions are largely collocated at large-, medium- and small-hub civilian airports where meeting FAA requirements on the airfield is paramount, please advise if this “experience and familiarity” is something the selecting authority would be interested in seeing in our response.

16. See Amendment 0001 Amend 001

Selection Criteria A 5.

17 Criteria B – Specialized Experience and Technical Competence: Will greater consideration be given to new construction or rehabilitation projects?

17. No, Greater consideration will not be given on the merits soley between new construction and rehabilitation projects but the whole breadth and depth of experience identified in Criteria B and similarities to the scope identified in this announcement.

C

18 Criteria B – Specialized Experience and Technical Competence: Will greater consideration be given to projects that are in the Region 1 Horizontal AOR?

18. Yes, Projects from within the identified region with similar scope identified in this announcement will be given greater consideration.

C

19 Criteria B – Specialized Experience and Technical Competence: Will greater consideration be given to Design-Bid-Build projects or Design-Build RFP projects? Or will both project types be evaluated equally?

19. Yes, Design-Bid-Build experience will be evaluated as a stronger indicator of specialized experience and technical competence than similar Design-Build experience due to the amount of technical design required. Note: The Government is requesting a minimum of (1) design-build experience under Criteria B – Specialized Experience and Technical Competence Subsection (9) to be evaluated in conjunction with all Criteria B – Specialized Experience and Technical Competence requirements.

C

20 Criteria B – Specialized Experience and Technical Competence: The RFP states that if a project is not 100-percent complete to note the current percentage and estimated date when the project will be completed for each contract and/or task order. Can you please confirm if this is design or construction completion? Is there a percent-complete lower limit that is acceptable for this solicitation? Finally, will the government provide greater consideration to projects that are 100-percent design complete versus projects that are less-than 100-percent complete?

20. The synopsis will be changed:

Under Criteria B, the following will be added Firms shall only submit projects as evidence of experience if those projects are at a minimum beyond B1/65% design submission for Type A/B experience, and at a mininum 50% complete on construction for Type C experience.

Under Criteria D, the following will be added Projects must be at least B1/65% designed for Type A/B and at a mininum 50% complete on construction for Type C.

Amend 003

Selection Criteria B. & E.

21 Criteria B – Specialized Experience and Technical Competence: Under Criteria B, subsection 12, it asks offerors to describe in Section H of the SF330 the firm’s quality management plan, quality assurance process, coordination of in-house work consultants and prior experience of the prime firm and significant consultants or partner firms etc. Please confirm that this evaluation factor is for Criteria B Specialized Experience and Technical Competence.

21. Criteria B subparagraph 12 requires utilizing Section H of the SF 330 answer that portion of the specialized Experience. The offeror's Criteria B subparagraph 12 information in Section H will be evaluated under Criteria B.

C

22 Criteria E – Knowledge of the Locality of the Project Areas: The solicitation asks to describe the extent of your familiarity with the defined local area construction industry expertise and its standard practices and to list construction contractors with references from within the area who you have designed work for and partnered with to construct. Request government consideration to remove any requirement to list Construction General Contractors who we have worked with in the area. Requiring this criteria unfairly disadvantages those AE firms who do not perform Design-Build AE services within the area. Some AE firms may be very knowledgeable and provide extensive Design-Bid-Build (DBB) AE services within the area, but would be disadvantaged by not having worked directly with a GC in the area. If the government is interested in highlighting DB work, it can emphasis design experience as a Designer of Record for DB or DB RFP development projects within Section F and/or Section E without requiring a listing of General Contractors. It is highly unusual to request an AE firm to list/reference General Contractors by name in a Brooks Act solicitation. Thank you for your consideration.

22. The synopsis will be changed from "List construction contractors with references from within the specified region who you have worked for as the Designer of Record on a construction project (i.e. Type C/Title II services)."

TO

"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."

A formal change of this requirement is in Amendment 003

Amend 003

Selection Criteria E. Last Sentence

23 Criteria D – Past Performance: In many instances when performing services as the Designer of Record (DoR) for a Design-Build (DB) project, the accepted industry-practice for past performance feedback for the AE firm is the use of Past Performance Questionnaires (PPQs). Please confirm that PPQs are acceptable documentation of Past Performance for offeror’s Section F projects?

23. Yes, PPQs is an acceptable documentation of Past Performance for offeror’s Section F projects. C

24 Additional Requirements – The solicitation notes ‘To avoid a conflict of interest, any contractor proposing as a prime may not have a subcontractor who is also proposing as a prime.’ Can you please confirm that this statement only applies to subcontractors for the region the offeror is responding to, and not if that subcontractor is submitting on other NGB Horizontal and/or Vertical regions.

24. Yes, Only for the region the offeror is responding to they may not overlap. C

25 According to the Solicitation on page 15, “blank sheets/Tabs separating the sections within the SF330 will not count in the page-count maximum for PART I.” Please confirm that the cover also does not count in the page-count maximum for PART I.

25. No, a single page cover letter will not count towards 75-page limit C

26 The Solicitation lists the Volume of DOD Contracts awarded to the firm during the previous 12 months as included in Part I, Section H of the SF330. To meet the full requirement including the table and listing all categories NGB requests, this will take up multiple pages in Part I, Section H. Would you allow us to list the Volume of DoD table as an attachment in Part II of the SF330 rather than in Part I or exclude from the page count limitation?

26. No, the firm shall provide all data for these secondary criteria on Part I, Section H, of the SF330. C

Does this preclude licensed professional engineers with decades of significant federal IDIQ experience from serving as engineers on this contract?

27. See Criteria A for minimum requirements for all disciplines. C

28 May we include significant disciplines relevant to the work described in the announcement that are not one of the 14 discipline roles outlined under Critera A.

28. Additional information is not discouraged as long as the entire minimum synopsis requirements have been met. C

29 Is there an SBE or other set aside for this Contract? 29. Refer to the CONTRACT INFORMATION listed inte solicitation, for Small Business reservations. C 30 Under the Past Performance criteria, it is requested that we submit name, address, and telephone number of references for all relevant contracts and subcontracts started or completed within the past six (6) years measured from the date of the award. As a very large firm, we have started or completed 600+ contracts and subcontracts within the past six years. Is it appropriate for us to select a subset of the most relevant projects to satisfy this requirement?

30. Per Criteria D, "Firms must provide relevant past performance in the accomplishment of similar work. Relevancy is defined in the DOD guide, as it pertains to the collection and use of past performance, as information that has a logical connection with the matter under consideration and application period.

C

31 Regarding the registration requirement for Geologist, due to the importance of experience within Region 1 for this field and the restrictive nature of AIPG certification, will certification as a Professional Geologist from a state certified board and membership in the American Institute of Professional Geologists be acceptable?

31. No, Refer to Criteria A, for minimum acceptable requirements. C

Criteria E Knowledge of Locality of the Project Areas…the solicitation states “List construction contractors with references from within the area who you have designed work for and partnered with to construct.” Please clarify the how this information will be evaluated as it relates to a FAR Part 36.6 Architect Engineer Selection. Typically A-E firms work for the owner and not the construction contractor in a design-bid-build project . Is the Government asking about design-build experience?

32. See answer to Question 22 Amend 003

Selection Criteria E. Last Sentence

Can PPQ, Letters of Commendation be included as an appendix to not count against the 75-page limit?

33. After further review the Government decided that, bound Letters of Commendation attached separately as an appendix for ease, will not count against the 75-page limitation. This changes the response for RFI #9 for Horizontal Region 1.

C

Will inclusion of a cover letter count towards the 75-page limit?

34. No, a single page cover letter will not count towards 75-page limit C

35 In evaluation the Project Manager qualification will registrations such as Professional Project Manager (PMP) and Certified Energy Manager (CEM) suffice for relevant professional registration?

35. See Criteria A for minimum requirements for all disciplines. C

36 Is the definition of “Firms” (as cited in Criteria F. Secondary Criteria, 4. Geographic Proximity) inclusive of all team members (prime and subcontractors) listed in Part I, Section C.

36. For Geographic Proximity, the Government will be evaluating "core disciplines" within the firm. The definition of "Firms" can include the prime as well as subcontractors whose role is considered a core discipline as described in this secondary criteria.

C

37 Does the 6 year limit of services inclusive of Type C services during construction? 37. See Amendment 0001, Criteria D C

38 Criteria D: Past Performance seems duplicative of information provided in Section F. Given the page limit, is it acceptable to cite Section F projects, and limit the Section H requirement to include only a few additional relevant contracts/subcontracts and reference information over the last six years that are not previously included in Section F?

38. See answer to Question 30 C

39 We are interested in submitting our SF330 qualifications for the above solicitations but noticed the following clause:

•NOTE: To avoid a conflict of interest, any contractor proposing as a prime may not have a subcontractor who is also proposing as a prime.

We’d like to clarify if this restriction apply to all categories?

For example, we have been asked to be a subconsultant on a team that is pursuing the “Other than small business category”. We would like to pursue the “Small Business” category. Can we still submit in the “small business category” if we are a subconsultant on another team for the “Other than small business category”?

We typically like to use firms that have direct experience with the type of work and agency so when we are performing projects there is no learning curve, but the subconsultants we would choose on our team are pursuing other categories as Prime

39. See answer to Question 24 C

Are the potential projects being considered under these contracts primarily airport/airfield projects

40. Refer to the Project Information section of the Synopsis. C

41 We plan to include PPQs, Letters of Commendation, CPARS etc as an appendix to our submission.

We request verification that the appendix will not be considered part of the 75-page limit?

41. After further review the Government decided that, bound Letters of Commendation separately as attached as an appendix for ease, will not count against 75-page limitation. This changes the response for RFI #9 for Horizontal Region 1

C

42 Criteria B – Specialized Experience and Technical Competence: Will greater consideration be given to projects that are in the Region 1 Horizontal AOR?

42. Yes, Projects from within the identified region with similar characteristics to the scope of this notice will be given greater consideration.

C