Julia Butler Hansen National Wildlife Refuge Habitat Restoration

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Portland District (NWP) is contemplating a sealed bid solicitation, via full and open competition. leading to an award for the Julia Butler Hansen (JBH) National Wildlife Refuge Habitat Restoration. The Magnitude of Construction for this project will be between $1,000,000.00 to $5,000,000.00. The proposed project is located on the JBH NWR within the Columbia River estuary. Located insouthwestern Washington and northwestern Oregon, the JBH NWR was established in 1972 specifically to protect and manage the federally endangered Columbian white-tailed deer. The refuge contains over 5,600 acres of pastures, forested tidal swamps, brushy woodlots, marshes, and sloughs along the Columbia. The mainland portion of the JBH NWR is bordered by the Columbia River and Steamboat Slough to the west, the Elochoman River to the south, Brooks Slough to the north, and Washington Highway 4 to the east. Construction of the project will include installation, replacement and/or modification of culverts and tide gates through flood control levees at the 7 sloughs on JBH NWR including associated features such as interior log booms, sheet pile headwalls, and rip rap at culverts for erosion protection, and interior and exterior channel construction. Construction will also include restoration of a sinuous channel for a portion of Risk Creek that travels through JBH NWR. The overall project intent is to provide anadromous fish access and egress and fisheries habitat improvements. The side-hinged restrained (hydraulic) tide gate proposed for use would allow for improved discharge of interior waters, and due to its unique capabilities, allow for inflow of tidal waters during flood tides to a preset level prior to tide gate closure. This would allow for ingress and egress of juvenile salmonids plus improvement of fisheries habitat/water quality parameters over existing conditions through greater exchange of interior and exterior waters. The tide gates would be operated in a manner to maintain existing habitat conditions for Columbian white-tailed deer. The conservation and management of a secure and viable population of these deer represents the primary purpose for the JBH NWR. The proposed culverts and tide gates, post-flood event, would provide for a faster return to the status quo for interior water levels compared to the existing conditions thus benefiting deer by limiting exposure to flood waters. Detailed specification will be inclusive in the solicitation package. A Site Safety and Health Officer (SSHO) shall be provided for all new contracts with the Portland District. For this project, the person that will act as the SSHO is required to have a minimum of 3 years safety work with similar projects and a 30 hour OSHA construction safety class, or equivalent, taken with the last 3 years. The SSHO may have no other duties for this work except function as the on-site CQC Manager. The administrative and contracting point of contact is Randy Montalbano, 503-808-4614, randy.montalbano@usace.army.mil . The technical point of contact is Kitia Chambers, 503-808-4953, Kitia.d.chambers@usace.army.mil . Solicitation and technical data package will be available for download from FedBizOps, www.fbo.gov on or about 2 January 2009