Merrick-Surdex Joint Venture LLP

Merrick-Surdex Joint Venture LLP, a partnership between Merrick & Company and Surdex Corporation based in Greenwood Village, Colorado, provides orthomosaic, lidar, magnetic and radiometric survey data collection and geospatial data processing services exclusively to the U.S. Geological Survey as a prime contractor on full-and-open federal contracts with no small business set-asides.

The joint venture operates with complete customer concentration — all 62 prime awards in the source data fund USGS Office of Acquisitions and Grants mapping, charting, and environmental research missions, representing $1.86 billion in combined potential value. This singular-customer footprint reflects a highly specialized positioning in government geospatial intelligence work. Merrick-Surdex competes exclusively under the Geospatial Products and Services IV (GPSC4) indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract, a $850 million multiple-award vehicle where the joint venture holds 38 task orders worth $74.1 million in combined potential value, and under the predecessor Geospatial Products and Services Contract V3, where it holds 22 task orders worth $37.1 million. All work is performed firm-fixed-price with no set-aside designations, positioning the joint venture as a commercial-rate competitor rather than a small business participant.

Recent delivery orders span state-level geospatial surveys: magnetic and radiometric survey work in the Sultan Basin and Methow Valley region (Washington) for $2.28 million with completion in March 2030; Blue Mountains magnetic and radiometric surveys in Oregon for $1.98 million through March 2029; Taku lidar and orthomosaic work in Alaska for $750,870 through October 2029; and California earthquake hazards geospatial services for $448,899 through September 2028, among others. The joint venture completed a Nebraska statewide delivery order for $5.99 million and a Montana Porphyry Belt project for $6.07 million in magnetic and radiometric survey work, representing the upper range of individual task-order values under GPSC4.

Activity has remained relatively steady across the past five years — six to nine awards annually from 2022 through 2025, with six awards recorded in 2026 year-to-date. Fifteen awards with completion dates in the next twenty-four months carry combined potential value of $27.7 million, representing moderate near-term recompete exposure. Only $107.7 million of the $1.86 billion combined potential value has been obligated to date, indicating substantial unfunded option periods and renewal potential across the task-order portfolio.

Service Contract Inventory captures $35 million in invoiced federal services revenue across FY2022–FY2025, with a spike in FY2024 ($19.1 million) that tracked with 43.2 FTEs reported against USGS contracts that year. FY2025 invoicing fell to $7.6 million across 10.6 FTEs, reflecting the timing of task-order completions rather than volume decline. On SCI-reportable prime contracts, median government-paid hourly rates ran approximately $168/hr, with senior labor pricing reaching $554/hr at the 90th percentile and entry-level labor at $23/hr. Across prime SCI contracts, subcontractors account for roughly 9% of total contractor hours performed, with seven named subs engaged over the period, indicating the joint venture builds most delivery capacity internally rather than through subcontracting relationships. The joint venture operates as a 100-percent prime contractor — no sub-award activity appears in the source data.