W9127N20B0021 Mouth of the Columbia River Sand Island Test Piles

General. This is a SPECIAL NOTICE and is for informational/market research purposes only. THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL, QUOTATION OR BID, NOR A SYNOPSIS OF A PROPOSED CONTRACT ACTION UNDER FAR SUBPART 5.2.

 Notice Details. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Northwestern Division, Portland District (CENWP) is seeking industry input as it evaluates its acquisition strategy to satisfy the requirement  for driving piles into the footprint of an old pile dike, located at East Sand Island that is at the Mouth of the Columbia River. This proposed project title, "Mouth of the Columbia River Sand Island Test Piles".

The North American Industrial Classification Code (NAICS) for this potential requirement would be 237990, “Other Heavy and Civil Engineering Construction”. The related size standard is $39.5M.

 Considerations. The Government has revised its requirement from the original requirement posted last fiscal year to reduce the amount of tests and to specify the specific tests to be conducted. Each of the CLINs have now been made mandatory as opposed to many of them being optional. Please see the revised bid schedule and corresponding measurement and payment section in the Division 01 specifications.

 When preparing a response, the Government is particularly interested in receiving feedback on the following questions in regard to this notice:

1. Would you submit a bid for this requirement if it were to be solicited as firm-fixed price Invitation for Bids?

2. Would you submit a bid for this requirement if it were to be solicited as a Time and Materials Request for Proposal?

3. Are you willing to work in the designated in-water work window of 15 September 2020 through 30 November 2020?

4. What could the Government do differently for your company to bid the job?

5. Interested parties are invited to ask questions and provide input to the team of possible project considerations.

 Project Site Background/Scope. The project is located at the Mouth of the Columbia River (MCR) in Clatsop County, Oregon. The project consists of the riverward ends of the Sand Island pile dike system, in water depths of greater than -10 feet MLLW which is only accessible by boat. The test pile program consists of 18 test locations distributed along the alignments of pile dikes at River Mile 4.01 and River Mile 6.37 in proximity to West Sand Island and East Sand Island. The contractor will perform the test program using Government furnished 24-inch steel pipe piles that are 80 feet in length with 0.5-inch wall thickness. Drivability using impact and vibratory hammers with several tip variations through various exiting underwater rock fill structure thicknesses up to 20 feet will be evaluated. Driving tips will be Government furnished property. Maximum rock diameter is approximately 30 inches.

Anticipated contract award is June 2020. The in-water work window is September 15, 2020 through November 30th, 2020. The contractor will provide a schedule at the time of award identifying the activities to take place. The contractor will work daytime shift and be encouraged to complete construction early. More information will follow, as part of the solicitation.

Estimated Construction Cost (ECC): The current ECC is between $1,000,000 and $5,000,000.

Acquisition Strategy Methods and Considerations. CENWP anticipates the Mouth of the Columbia River Sand Island Test Piles being solicited as a firm-fixed price Invitation for Bids OR a Time and Materials Request for Proposals pending feedback received from this notice.

USACE’s intent with this notice is to involve interested firms early to make sure all feedback and considerations are incorporated into the final solicitation.

 Communications with Industry. CENWP is interested in feedback from interested firms.

a.  Submission Instructions. Responses to this Special Notice must be submitted electronically (via email) SUBJECT: W9127N20B0021 Mouth of the Columbia River Sand Island Test Piles. Please send to Charles Boswell, Contract Specialist, at charles.m.boswell@usace.army.mil by 5:00 pm Pacific Standard Time Monday, 6 April 2020. All responses must be received by the specified time and due date to be reviewed. All successfully submitted responses will receive an acknowledgement by return email. ANY RESPONSES RECEIVED AFTER THE SPECIFIED DATE AND TIME MAY NOT BE CONSIDERED. A Firm's response to this Special Notice shall be limited to five (5) pages and shall include the following information:

i.   Firm's name, address, point of contact, phone number, e-mail address, CAGE and DUNS number, and the Construction Bonding Level per contract.

ii.   Firm's small business category and Business Size: Small Business (SB), Small Disadvantaged (SDB), including 8(a) firms, Historically Underutilized Business Zones (HUBZone), Women-Owned Small Business (WOSB), including Economically Disadvantaged Women-Owned Small Business (EDWOSB), and Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small business (SDVOSB).

iii.  Provide relevant information on the Firm's experience/Capabilities as it pertains to the proposed work outlined in the Project Description.

iv.  Provide a maximum of two examples of projects similar in size, scope and complexity with a brief description of each project, customer name, timeliness of performance, contract number, customer satisfaction and the dollar value.

b. Disclaimer and Important Notes. This notice does not obligate the Government to award a contract. No reimbursement will be made for any costs associated with providing information in response to this Special Notice or any follow up information. The Government reserves the right to use information provided by respondents for any purpose deemed necessary and legally appropriate. Any organization responding to this notice should ensure that its response is complete and sufficiently detailed to allow the Government to determine the organization's qualifications to perform the work. Respondents are advised that the Government is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received or to provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted. After a review of the responses, a solicitation may be published in Federal Business Opportunities. However, responses to this notice are not adequate responses to a solicitation.

c.  All interested firms must be registered in the System for Award Management (SAM) at https://www.sam.gov and remain current for the duration of the contract to be eligible for award of a Government contract..