Pre-solicitation Notice - FY24 Savannah Inner Harbor Dredging

This is a PRE-SOLICATATION NOTICE for the FY24 Savannah Inner Harbor Maintenance Dredging. This acquisition will be offered as an unrestricted competitive solicitation and will result in a Firm Fixed Price Contract Award. The magnitude of this requirement per DFARS 236.204(ii) is between $25,000,000.00 and $100,000,000.

Project Location: The work is located in the deep draft Savannah Harbor navigation project in Georgia. The Savannah Habor project is located on the border of Georgia (GA) and South Carolina (SC) in Chatham and Jasper Counties.

Project Description: The Savannah Inner Maintenance Harbor Dredging 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.  Approximately four million cubic yards of maintenance material is expected to be removed from the inner harbor.

The work is located in the Savannah Harbor deep draft navigation project in the vicinity of Chatham County, Georgia and Jasper County, South Carolina.  The Savannah Inner Harbor channel is authorized in general to 47 ft. deep MLLW and 500 ft. wide.  The channel narrows to 400 ft. wide above station 103+000 and to 200 ft. wide above station 105+500.  Varying additional advanced maintenance depths are authorized throughout the project. 

Kings Island Turning Basin (KITB) is the primary turning basin for large ships, located adjacent to the Georgia Ports Authority docks.  KITB requires dredging to allow the loaded ships to freely turn when using the port.  About 1.6 million cubic yards of maintenance material is removed from the KITB annually.

Other contractors may be working for the Savannah District on the Savannah Harbor, to include within confined upland dredged material containment areas and designated staging areas.  If such work occurs, all dredging and placement activities shall be coordinated under the direction of the Contracting Officer.

The material dredged from the Savannah Inner Harbor shall be placed in confined upland disposal areas adjacent to the Savannah River. Savannah dredged material containment areas (DMCA) 1N, 2A, 12A, 13A, 13B, 14A, 14B and Jones Oysterbed Island are operated by the Corps for dredging purposes.  Access to these areas which are owned by a combination of the Georgia Department of Transportation and US Fish and Wildlife Service is coordinated through the Savannah District.

Environmental restrictions may limit the timing of dredging in the Savannah Inner Harbor.  The striped bass spawning window limits the timing of dredging above station 63+360 (river mile 12) for two weeks during period established annually by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources between 1 April and 15 May, and a dissolved oxygen window exists from 1 July through 30 September.  To protect sturgeon aggregation areas in the upper river, no dredging is allowed above station 105+500 from 1 May through 31 October. 

Maintenance material in certain reaches of the channel may contain cadmium (Cd) in levels significant enough require special placement in the DMCAs.  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 established thresholds, options can be exercised to prescribe 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 includes mobilization/demobilization, maintenance dredging, moves, and dive team personnel and equipment rental for obstruction removal.  Contract options include additional pumping considerations for placement of material in designated Cd disposal areas that may be dredged from reaches potentially containing levels of Cd that require special handling.