GAOA Bay Furnace Campground Paving Project

The USDA Forest Service is soliciting bids for the GAOA Bay Furnace Campground Paving Project, which involves full-depth reclamation and repaving of approximately 130,000 square feet of campground roadways and parking areas at the Bay Furnace Campground in Michigan's Hiawatha National Forest. The project requires contractors to remove existing asphalt, prepare base areas, install two 1.5-inch compacted lifts of Type II asphalt concrete on roadways and parking areas, add 2-foot-wide gravel shoulders, prepare campground spurs with optional 2-inch asphalt lifts, and stripe parking areas with Sherwin Williams traffic marking paint. Work must be completed during the period of September 7, 2026 through October 16, 2026 (39 calendar days), with allowable operating hours from 6:00 AM to 6:00 PM, Monday through Friday, excluding federal holidays. The contract will be awarded on a firm fixed-price basis to the lowest-priced, responsible offeror. The site visit was held on September 15, 2025, and all contractor questions were due by September 22, 2025, with Amendment 1 issued on September 18, 2025, modifying project specifications and reducing spur pavement thickness from 3 inches to 2 inches while changing full-depth reclamation specifications to the simpler Section 304 process.

This solicitation is designated as a Total Small Business set-aside under NAICS code 237310 (Highway, Street, and Bridge Construction). The estimated project value ranges between $500,000 and $1,000,000, with bid abstracts showing seven vendor submissions ranging from $447,824 to $1,723,619. The project encompasses approximately 130,000 square feet of roadway requiring full-depth reclamation, plus an additional 30,300 square feet of optional campground spurs, with base bid items including mobilization, aggregate base preparation (600 cubic yards), asphalt installation, and parking area striping. The contractor must comply with prevailing wage requirements as specified in the General Decision wage determination for Michigan construction workers and is responsible for all site closures, traffic control signage, erosion control measures, and compliance with heritage resource protection protocols. The project is located at the Bay Furnace Campground in Munising, Michigan, within Alger County in the Hiawatha National Forest (coordinates 46.438315, -86.708335), with the preference that work be completed in spring 2026 prior to campground opening, with potential campground opening delays accommodated into early June with six months' notice.