FHWA Highway Driving Simulator (HDS) Technical Support Services

This synopsis is issued pursuant to Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 5.203 which prescribes a mandatory requirement for a 15-day pre‐solicitation notification. The purpose of this synopsis is to announce the Federal Highway Administration's (FHWA) intent to issue a solicitation for a full and open competition, single-award IDIQ contract.

These requirements are for non-personal technical and professional engineering services to support the FHWA Office of Safety and Operations Research and Development (HRSO)’s Highway Driving Simulator (HDS) Laboratory.

The primary functions of the HDS laboratory are scenario development, maintenance, and upgrades of the simulator system in support of the human factors program research activities and to provide critical human factors support on special projects. This lab supports data collection that is conducted by research psychologists under another contract award. The HDS is a fully interactive human factors research simulator. The human factors research program includes two major areas of research: 1) highway safety and 2) operations. Resulting research will provide knowledge, recommendations, assessment, assistance and coordination for overall highway safety and operations design, planning, projects, policies, programs, and technology for Federal, State, and local governments. In addition, the team provides expert technical assistance to other FHWA offices, other Federal agencies, State and local transportation organizations, industry and academia.

These services require that the Contractor perform activities to include conducting human factors research and provide critical human factors support on special projects by operating, maintaining, and as required, enhancing the HDS at the Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center (TFHRC) in McLean, Virginia. Throughout the conduct of these services the Contractor shall implement a Systems Engineering approach to guide the technical and scheduling aspects of the work.

Specific technical capabilities will be required of the Contractor. In particular, detailed knowledge of and practical experience in (1) driving simulation; (2) driving simulator experiments; and (3) Intelligent Transportation Systems/Connected and Automated Vehicles.  It is recommended the Contractor have knowledge of human factors and behavioral research concerning highway safety and operations.

The solicitation and all related documents will be released electronically via the Government Point of Entry (GPE) otherwise known as www.sam.gov. As such, no written, telephonic or other type of request for an advance copy of the solicitation will be entertained. Potential offerors are encouraged to register on www.sam.gov to receive any further information in reference to the subject action inclusive of any announcements, and/or amendments to the solicitation after its release.

The FHWA intends to award a single IDIQ contract as a result of the solicitation. The ordering period shall not exceed 60 months from the effective date of the contract. The NAICS Code for this effort is 541715 with a size standard of 1,000 employees.

This synopsis is not a request for competitive proposals. A Request for Proposals (RFP) is anticipated to be published in the near future. Once the RFP is posted, all interested, responsible sources may submit a proposal which will be considered by the FHWA.