Construction of Chilled Water Plant and Site Utility Upgrades at VA Medical Center in West Haven, CT

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New England District seeks construction of a chilled water plant replacement and site utility upgrades at VA Connecticut Healthcare System in West Haven, with proposals due November 20, 2026 and questions due October 23, 2026. This is a firm-fixed-price competitive best-value solicitation with no set-aside.

Place of performance is West Haven, Connecticut. The scope includes demolition of the existing chilled water plant (Building 16a) and construction of a new multi-story chilled water plant with chillers, cooling towers, pumps, and associated mechanical and electrical equipment; a new fuel tank farm; replacement and upgrade of fire protection and domestic water mains from Campbell Avenue to Building 15; utility main loops for chilled water supply and return, steam, condensate, domestic water, and fire protection water originating from the new plant and back-feeding to Building 1; redundant electrical feeders from the utility demarcation point to Building 19 with coordination with the local electrical utility provider for offsite redundancy; and new water storage tanks. The work involves civil, site, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, structural, geotechnical, and architectural disciplines. The project must comply with DVA Physical Security Resiliency Design Requirements and achieve USGBC LEED Silver certification for the chilled water plant. Work is located within an active medical center campus that remains operational; impact to ongoing operations must be minimized and carefully coordinated with the Contracting Officer and VAMC staff.

The contract period is 1,280 calendar days with a mandatory 10 calendar days to commence work following Notice to Proceed (anticipated June 1, 2027). The NAICS code is 236220, Commercial and Institutional Building Construction, with a $45 million size standard.

The base bid price is estimated at $1,400,000 with optional items available for government exercise. The estimated price range is $75 million to $150 million. A bid guarantee of 20 percent of bid price or $3 million (whichever is less) is required. Performance and payment bonds at 100 percent of contract price are required unless the contract price is $150,000 or less. Liquidated damages are $2,728 per calendar day for failure to complete work on time.

Several brand-name justifications restrict competition on component systems: Assa Abloy Accentra Large Format lock cores (sole source, no responsible alternatives), Siemens or Johnson Controls building automation systems (standardization requirement), Johnson Controls Electronic Security Systems (proprietary integration requirement), Johnson Controls/Simplex Fire Alarm System (proprietary network integration), and AMAZ Consulting for SCADA system programming (incumbent with unique knowledge of existing complex system). All brand-name requirements comply with Buy American.

Evaluation uses four factors in order of importance: Past Performance (must achieve at least Satisfactory or Neutral Confidence for award eligibility), Management Approach (minimum Acceptable rating required), Small Business Participation Commitment Document (minimum Acceptable rating with mandatory 10 percent small business participation of total acquisition value), and Price (least important, with all non-price factors significantly outweighing price). Past performance projects must be completed within the last ten years with minimum construction costs of $40 million for prime contractors, heavy utility construction scope, and at least three contributing disciplines. Proposals must include up to five recent relevant projects, organizational charts, summary schedules on 11"x17" pages, and execution narrative plans. Volume I is limited to 35 pages; Volumes II and III have no page limits. All submissions must be in native formats plus PDF copies with price information in Microsoft Excel. Amendment 0005, effective October 22, requires only Volume I submission by November 20; Volumes II and III are due following final design issuance in February 2027, with all properly-submitting offerors invited to continue. All offerors must acknowledge amendments prior to deadline. The mandatory site visit occurred September 29, 2026 at Building 15.