Q A_2.pdf

NATIONAL GUARD BUREAU INDUSTRIAL HYGIENE REGION NORTHEAST

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS FOR INDUSTRIAL HYGIENE FOR AREAS 1 THRU 5:

1. I had another question about the scheduling and field work for the IH work to be done in Area

4. As I was reviewing the scope I saw that the scheduling must be done within 6 weeks of being awarded the contract. Does that also mean that the field work must be completed within 6 weeks of being awarded the contract? If not, when will the field work need to be completed and will it be within this fiscal year or next for the government?

Answer 1: The first coordination with the Regional IH Office and then the state POC must occur within the first 6 weeks. The result of this will be a tentative schedule provided to the state POC who will then validate or ask for changes to the schedule. Once the schedule is agreed upon, work will commence. Reports should flow soon after field work at each facility is completed, so the Regional IH office understands that there may be gaps in the field work schedule to allow time for report writing. The actual end date of the work (submission of final report) should be within 12 calendar months of the start of the work, regardless of the number of contracts won.

2. Ref: Instructions to Offerors, 1.b “…include all cost factors to complete the surveys inclusive of travel cost to spend one full day at each facility.”

Question: Is “one full day” a strict constraint on time to the complete survey and sampling at each facility? Considering the size and complexity of, for example, an AASF this may demand a substantial inventory of equipment and number of technicians to complete all required sampling and dosimetry. Additionally, revisit may be required if absentees (i.e. medical leave) or unplanned equipment maintenance interrupt processes and preclude scheduled sampling tasks.

Answer 2: This statement is included to ensure at least one full day is scheduled for each facility.

More days can be included in your submission if you feel they are necessary. Focus should be on the initial visit and a revisit scheduled only under very unusual circumstances.

3. Section 1.3.2. States that the price will include all costs to spend “one full day at each facility”.

Section 1.8 “Personal Qualifications” states that field work must be performed by an individual with a minimum of 2 years experiences as an industrial hygienist. Is the intent of this statement of work that all surveys will be conducted over a maximum period of one day by a maximum of one industrial hygienist/technician regardless of the size or complexity of operations at each location?

Answer 3: Those are minimum requirements. As long as at least one day is spent at each facility with at least one industrial hygienist (with 2 years of experience) present, the requirements of the contract are fulfilled. Additional days and personnel can be budgeted for in your submission.

4. Based upon the scope of work and the limited time on‐site, considerable pre‐coordination with facility points of contact will be required to establish similar exposure groups (SEG) and tasks requiring sampling. Is task‐based sampling an acceptable approach for conducting these surveys

(as opposed to full‐shift)? Additionally, is the intent to provide baseline results (i.e. one or 2 samples for each SEG) for an initial exposure assessment? Representative sampling will likely not be possible due to the broad scope of work and limited time on‐site.

Answer 4: It depends on the sampling. Noise dosimetry should be conducted as full‐shift sampling while air sampling can be completed based on the task being performed. Attention should be paid to short duration air sampling to ensure minimum flow volumes are collected in order to ensure the lab can analyze the sample for the desired chemical. This can be coordinated with the lab.

5. Will these surveys be scheduled during normal business days and hours, or will off‐shift (i.e.

nights and weekends) be required to conduct work drill weekends?

Answer 5: All surveys will be conducted during the normal work week. Maintenance facilities are staffed by National Guard technicians who are federal employees and work a varied schedule, depending on their state. Some states allow for a compressed work week with 10 hour days being worked M‐Th or Tu‐F. Shop work schedules should be discussed during the initial coordination with the state POC. Readiness centers have National Guard AGR (active guard reserve) Soldiers present during the week. While some might have as many as 75 Soldiers present, others may have only one or two. This depends on the level of the unit assigned to that facility. Company or detachment size units would have fewer people, while higher headquarters units would have more fulltime staff assigned. Coordination with unit level personnel is essential to ensure people will be present during the IH survey. It is expected that only fulltime personnel will be present during the Readiness Center surveys.

6. If we chose to bid on two or more of the following Solicitations ‐ W912K6‐16‐Q‐0080 (Area 1);

W912K6‐16‐Q‐0081 (Area 2); W916K6‐16‐Q‐0082 (Area 3); W912K6‐16‐Q‐0078 (Area 4) and

W912K6‐16‐Q‐0083 (Area 5), can we submit one bid response for the Past Performance and

Technical Capability and submit the Pricing Proposal with the “Pricing per Facility” Excel document per each region by state?

Or is it expected that each bid response to the solicitation numbers listed above have to be sent separately with a Pricing Proposal, Past Performance and Technical Capability?

Answer 6: All Request for Quotation (RFQ) will be answer separately with the corresponding

RFQ number. For example: If a company wants to submit quotes for Areas 1 and 2, the company will submit two separate quotes one with number W912K6‐16‐Q‐0080 and the other with W912K6‐16‐Q‐0081.