FY 22 Savannah Inner Harbor Dredging

INTRODUCTION

The Savannah District Corps of Engineers is requesting information regarding the market capabilities of potential contractors that can perform FY 22 Savannah Inner Harbor Maintenance Dredging.

This request does not obligate the Government in any way to post a solicitation or award a contract. Information received will be considered for the purpose of market research and determining how to best move forward with the procurement. Applicable NAICS code is 237990 with a size standard of $27.5 Million. The potential magnitude for this requirement is estimated at more than $10,000,000 dollars. Inquiries will only be accepted via email to Contract Specialist, Ms. Jennifer M. Ford at Jennifer.M.Ford@usace.army.mil or Contracting Officer, Ms. Whittni C. Hiscox at Whittni.C.Hiscox@usace.army.mil . The request for Information sheet should be completed and submitted no later than January 18, 2022 at 11:00 am, Eastern.

This is not a solicitation. This posting is a Sources Sought Notice only.

SCOPE OF WORK:

The Savannah Inner Harbor Contract provides construction services, including furnishing personnel, transportation, mobilization and demobilization, equipment and materials required in connection with maintenance dredging.  This contract is traditionally performed with a hydraulic cutterhead dredge and the duration is expected to be one year from Notice to Proceed.  Up to four million cubic yards of maintenance material is expected to be removed from the inner harbor.

The work is located in the deep draft Savannah Harbor navigation project in Georgia. The Savannah Harbor project is located on the border of Georgia and South Carolina (SC) in Chatham County.  The Savannah Inner Harbor channel is 47 ft. deep MLLW and 500 ft. wide to the upper end of Kings Island Turning Basin: 36 ft. deep MLLW and 400 ft. wide to the upper end of Argyle Island Turning Basin; and 30 ft. deep MLLW and 200 ft. wide to the upper limit of the project. 

Savannah Harbor’s Kings Island Turning Basin (KITB) is the primary turning basin for large civilian and military ships, lying adjacent to the Georgia Ports Authority docks.  KITB requires dredging twice a year to allow the loaded ships to freely turn when using the port.  Up to 1.6 million cubic yards of maintenance material is removed from the KITB annually.

Other contractor(s) may be working for the Savannah District on the Savannah Harbor, to include confined upland dredged material containment areas and designated staging areas.  If such work occurs, the contractors shall coordinate activities under the direction of the Contracting Officer.

All material dredged from the Savannah Inner Harbor must be placed in upland confined disposal areas adjacent to the Savannah River, with DMCA-12A receiving the majority of the maintenance material. Savannah confined upland disposal areas DMCAs 12A, 13A, 13B and Jones Oysterbed Island are owned by local sponsor Georgia Department of Transportation.  Disposal areas DMCAs 14A and 14B are owned by the Joint Project Office of the Georgia and South Carolina Port Authorities.  Portions of DMCAs 2A and Jones/Oysterbed are owned by the Georgia Department of Transportation and the US Fish and Wildlife Service.  DMCA 1N is owned entirely by the US Fish and Wildlife Service.  The Federal Government holds existing easements on all confined upland disposal areas in the Savannah Harbor except DMCA 1N which has a Memorandum of Understanding.

Environmental windows limit the timing of dredging in the Savannah Inner Harbor.  The environmental windows in Savannah include a Striped Bass spawning window (2 weeks between approximate dates 1 April through 15 May timeframe) which limits the amount and timing of dredging above station 63+360 (River Mile 12), and a dissolved oxygen window (approximately July 1 through September 30).  To protect sturgeon aggregation areas in the upper river, no dredging is allowed above STA 105+500 1 May through 31 October.  Dredging is allowed during this time below STA 105+500 but cutterhead dredging must include monitoring for sturgeon take in the DMCAs (cutterhead monitoring requirements can be found in the 2020 SARBO Appendix E, Section 4).  There is no dredging restriction or monitoring requirement for sturgeon 1 November through 30 April.

Certain reaches of O&M sediments may contain cadmium (Cd) in levels significant enough to harm foraging avian species in the DMCAs.  Therefore, O&M sediments in those reaches will be tested by the Government prior to dredging.  If Cd is found in those sediments equal to or greater than 14 mg/kg, then options will be exercised that include disposal of the sediments in specific DMCAs under special handling conditions.

Obstructions are objects or materials in the required side slope cross sections or in the existing ground surface which are unknown at the time of encounter by the dredge or identified by pre and post hydrographic surveys, and monthly condition surveys. Obstructions are objects which cannot be removed by a hydraulic pipeline dredge.  The Contractor may encounter obstructions during dredging operations and must remove the objects or materials to provide the required section as shown on the cross-section plates.  If the Contractor is performing maintenance dredging with a pipeline dredge, the dredge must act as a probe for obstructions.  The object removed will be the property of the Contractor unless it has been determined to be culturally significant. 

The base contract will include mobilization/demobilization, maintenance dredging, movies, dive team diving, and equipment rental for obstruction removal.  Contract options include Cd dredging with placement to the backside of DA 14B, maintenance dredging as cap material placed on top of the Cd dredged material, and maintenance dredging the uppermost reaches of the Savannah inner harbor with environmental window.

If you are interested in this project and/or your organization has the potential capacity to perform these services, please submit the following to the Point of Contacts (POC) information listed below:

1. Name and Address of your Firm
2. Point of Contact (name/phone/email)
3. Company website
4. Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) number (http://www.dnb.com)
5. Commercial and Government Entity (CAGE) code (http://www.dlis.dla.mil/cage_welcome.asp)
6. Business Size, according to the specified NAICS code 237990, to include designation as HUBZone, 8(a), Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business, Small Disadvantaged Business, Woman-Owned Business, and Large Business.  The Government must be able to verify SBA certification of HUBZone, 8(a), and SDB via the System for Award Management (SAM) (http://www.sam.gov/)
7. Bonding capability for your firm in terms of single and aggregated
   bonding
8. Please provide a capability statement addressing the following:

1. Will you use a dredge with the ability to pump in excess of 50,000 linear feet with a +47.0' MLLW elevation change to the disposal areas? 
2. Will you use a dredge with the ability to dredge to a depth that is in excess of a -52.0’ ft MLLW (maximum depth of -70.0’ MLLW)?
3. Will you use a dredge with the ability to work in a river with an approximate maximum surface velocity of up to 7’ per second during approximately 60% each day?
4. Will you use a dredge with the ability to work in a river with an approximate tidal range of +10.’ To -2.0’ semi diurnal tides (twice per day), with an excess of 50 ships per week?
5. The character of materials ranges from heavy packed sands to soft silty soils inter-bedded with sand lenses. Will you use a dredge with the ability to remove approximately 13,000 cubic yards per day of maintenance material?
6. What, if any, recommendations do you have to make this contract more competitive in the future?

Primary Point of Contact:

Jennifer M. Ford

Contract Specialist

912-652-5005

Jennifer.m.ford@usace.army.mil

Secondary Point of Contact:

Whittni C. Hiscox

Contracting Officer

912-652-5421

Whittni.c.hiscox@usace.army.mil