Prequalification of Sources, Levee Repair Construction Contracts, United States Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha District

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Prequalification of sources for levee repairs in the Missouri River Basin

**UPDATE** January 10, 2023 4:15 CT

The PSL was established for a 3-year period, which ends next month. USACE still has several levee systems that are not entirely repaired, and 2 levee systems damaged in 2019 that were recently authorized for federal assistance. Consequently, the PSL is being extended an additional year until August 2023. This SAM notification includes the attached revised table of projects with red text denoting updates from the last table.

We are projecting solicitations being advertised for Salt Creek (second contract), R520, and R548. Dates are not ready to be divulged. There is the possibility of several other Missouri River levee systems having small follow up contracts after being mostly repaired using Rapid Disaster Infrastructure MATOC. Most likely in that group are L611/614 and R613/616, but you will still see placeholders on the list for other Missouri River levee systems.

POC: Please send all applications and questions to Ms. Lynne Reed at lynne.d.reed@usace.army.mil on or before 01 August 2023 by COB.

DESCRIPTION:

Added: Jul 02, 2019 11:04 am Modified: Aug 16, 2019 12:48 pm Prequalification of Sources

Levee Repair Construction Contracts

United States Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha District

ANNOUNCEMENT

This is a PREQUALIFICATION OF SOURCES announcement, issued in accordance with DFARS 236.272 and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Acquisition Instruction (UAI) 5136.272. No reimbursement will be made for any costs associated with providing information in response to this announcement or any follow up information requests. Respondents will be notified of the results of the prequalification process.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Omaha District is seeking to create two Prequalified Sources Lists (PSL) for levee repairs in the states of Iowa, Missouri, and Nebraska. As a result of flooding in the spring of 2019, there are damages to 33 federal and non-federal levee systems with over 500 miles of earthen levees with the Omaha District. The levees are in the Missouri River Basin on the Missouri River and its tributary rivers and creeks within the Omaha District. The attached list of projects entitled "PSL Projects Missouri River Basin" contains a description of each planned levee repair project.

The majority of levee repair construction shall be self-performed by the prime contractors under this prequalification. The objective of the PSLs is to identify and select responding firms that demonstrate the capacity and capability to successfully support critical levee repairs without relying entirely on subcontractors. Subcontracting will be allowed, but will not be part of the prequalification process.

Identifying and selecting prequalified sources will be based solely on the responding firm's ability to meet the specific criteria that assess the firm's bonding capability, previous experience completing construction of levee projects or cut/fill grading operations, and past performance. The selection process will be objective in that responding firms either meet or fail to meet the criteria. Failure to meet any one of the criteria will result in non­selection. The criteria ensure selection of clearly qualified contractors with experience and capability relevant to the anticipated requirements, provide competition, and minimize subjectivity in USACE's assessment.

The PSLs will be available for use while other acquisitions are underway for similar requirements. The PSLs will be reviewed annually to ensure a legitimate need exists. Presently, USACE anticipates at least 28 contract actions over the next three years. As such, it is likely that a legitimate need will continue for the next 36 months. The PSL will be used as a vehicle to solicit multiple stand-alone construction contracts varying from $250,000 to potentially $20,000,000. This, however, does not preclude USACE from soliciting and awarding a contract in excess of this amount if determined to be in the government's best interest.

Due to the variance in anticipated contract size, prequalification of sources will be conducted for the following increments: $5,000,000. PSL 1 will be for projects estimated to be less than $5,000,000. PSL2 will be for projects estimated to be more than $5,000,000. A firm who is qualified for PSL2 is automatically qualified for PSL 1.

After the PSLs are established for each threshold, USACE intends to proceed by issuing solicitations using FAR Part 14 procedures (i.e., sealed bidding).

The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for procurements using the Prequalified Sources List is 237990, Other Heavy and Civil Construction, which has a small business size standard of $36.5M.

BONDING REQUIREMENTS

Pursuant to the Miller Act, performance and payment bonds shall be provided for each contract awarded under the PSL. Typically, Notice to Proceed (NTP) will not be issued until after the successful bidder provides sufficient bonding. However, in some time-sensitive situations, USACE may issue NTP at award, which will be stated in the solicitation.

QUALIFICATION REQUIREMENTS

To be considered qualified for the PSLs, firms must meet the following minimum requirements:

1. Experience: Proven competence to perform the construction of at least three earthwork projects or cut/fill dredging or grading operations including either levee construction, levee degrading and reconstruction, and/or large scale cut/fill projects. Each project submitted for experience must have included a minimum cut/fill quantity of 10,000 cubic yards of material for PSL 1 and 75,000 cubic yards for PSL2. Each project should have a value of at least $750,000 for PSL 1 and $3,000,000 for PSL2. Relevant experience includes hauling/placement and compaction of soil/sands material, hauling/placement of aggregate material, hauling/placement of rip rap material, placement of geotextile/geogrid, sheet pile construction, seeding, haul material, haul road construction, and/or mass cut/fill operations requiring grading of material.


2. Past Performance: Information that demonstrates satisfactory ratings by the client for each of the projects cited in Experience above that indicates a recommendation to use the contractor for future projects. A CPARS evaluation or its equivalent from the client meets this requirement. The firm's self-assessment of its own performance is not requested and will not be substituted for the client's assessment. Additional past performance information from other contracts that represents a risk to future satisfactory performance may be considered by the qualification authority. This information could include contract terminations, safety violations, cure notices, tax delinquencies, non-compliance with subcontracting plans, compliance with labor laws, assessment of liquidated damages, and adversarial management practices or behaviors as viewed by the client. USACE reserves the right to consider past performance information from any source it deems relevant.


3. Bonding: For PSL1 ($5,000,000) and a firm must have a single bonding capability of $10 million and aggregate bonding capability of at least $20 million.

SET-ASIDES

All firms submitting documentation meeting the standards for prequalification will be placed on the PSL for its approved threshold. However, placement on the PSL does not guarantee a firm will be solicited for every requirement within its approved threshold. The contracting officer will consider the following set- asides:

1. Small Business Set-Aside: Pursuant to FAR Part 19, the contracting officer may elect to set-aside any solicitation within the PSL for a specific small business category. Small business classification will be determined by the representations and certifications in SAM for NAICS 237990, Other Heavy and Civil Construction.


2. Local Area Set-Aside: Pursuant to FAR Part 26.2, the contracting officer may elect to set-aside any solicitation within the PSL for local firms residing in or primarily doing business in the disaster area:

For the State of Iowa, the disaster area includes the following counties: Adair, Allamakee, Audubon, Boone, Bremer, Buena Vista, Butler, Calhoun, Carroll, Cass, Cherokee, Clay, Crawford, Dallas, Decatur, Dickinson, Emmet, Fayette, Franklin, Fremont, Greene, Guthrie, Hamilton, Hancock, Hardin, Harrison, Howard, Humboldt, Ida, Iowa, Jasper, Kossuth, Lyon, Madison, Mahaska, Marshall, Mills, Monona, Montgomery, O'Brien, Osceola, Page, Plymouth, Pocahontas, Polk, Pottawattamie, Sac, Shelby, Sioux, Tama, Union, Webster, Winnebago, Winneshiek, Woodbury, and Wright.

For the State of Missouri, the disaster area includes the following counties/areas: Andrew, Atchison, Buchanan, Carroll, Chariton, Holt, Platte, and Ray.

For the State of Nebraska, the disaster area includes the following counties/areas: Adams, Antelope, Banner, Blaine, Boone, Box Butte, Boyd, Brown, Buffalo, Burt, Butler, Cass, Cedar, Cherry, Cheyenne, Colfax, Cuming, Custer, Dakota, Dixon, Dodge, Douglas, Deuel, Fillmore, Franklin, Frontier, Furnas, Gage, Garden, Garfield, Gosper, Greeley, Hall, Harlan, Holt, Howard, Jefferson, Johnson, Keya Paha, Kimball, Knox, Lancaster, Lincoln, Logan, Loup, Madison, Merrick, Morrill, Nance, Nemaha, Nuckolls, Otoe, Pawnee, Phelps, Pierce, Platte, Richardson, Rock, Saline, Sarpy, Saunders, Scotts Bluff, Seward, Sheridan, Sherman, Sioux, Stanton, Thayer, Thurston, Valley, Washington, Wayne, Webster, Wheeler, and York Counties and the Santee Sioux Nation, Ponca Tribe of Nebraska, Omaha Tribe of Nebraska, Sac and Fox, and Winnebago Tribe.

If additional counties are declared disaster areas for the spring 2019 flood event, they will be considered to meet the definition of the local area for the purposes of this prequalification notice.

If a firm did not reside in one of the disaster areas listed above as of March 13, 2019 and requests to be classified as local, it must submit compelling evidence that its primary business is derived from the disaster area. A mere statement to this effect or incomplete calculations are inadequate.

The contracting officer may elect to utilize both local area and small business set-asides in the same solicitation within the PSL or no set-asides whatsoever. The contracting officer may also elect to advertise solicitations for levee repairs contracts outside of the PSL entirely. These decisions will be made on a case-by-case basis with considerations including (but not limited to) adequate competition, small business goals, number of small business bidders, administrative efficiency, pricing trends, and industry feedback.

ROLLING ADMISSIONS

After PSL1 and PSL2 have been established, firms that wish to be added to a PSL may submit responses at any time according to the instructions stated in this announcement. USACE reserves the right to hold responses received after the first 30 days of this PSL announcement to review in an efficient manner, but for no more than 90 days. A firm will typically be notified of USACE's review within 7 days of the review. A firm who is initially determined to not meet the qualification standards may re-submit its response no more than once every 90 days thereafter provided its qualifications have changed.

SOLICITATION PROCESS

1. USACE will provide all firms in both PSL 1 and PSL2 (including those that are not eligible for the specific solicitation in the event of a specific set-aside or bonding limits) notification of its intent to advertise a solicitation via an e-mail to the firm's designated e-mail address. The notification will include a brief summary of the requirement. The notification will identify the selected PSL and any small business or local area set-aside. The contracting officer will endeavor, but is not required, to provide the notice to PSL firms at least 7 days prior to issuing the solicitation. Prior to the issuance of a solicitation, USACE will post at least one interim design package for each solicitation to Safe Access File Exchange (SAFE) for a prequalified firm to review at its discretion.


2. Solicitations will be posted to secure government point of entry. SAFE at https://safe.amrdec.army.mil/safe/ is the planned forum. However, should issues with SAFE be encountered, the contracting officer may elect to utilize other forums, including FedBizOpps or e-mail. Solicitation amendments will be posted to the same forum as the original solicitation. When solicitation file sizes are 10MB or less, USACE may distribute a solicitation via e-mail instead of SAFE.


3. Sealed bid solicitations will reflect the date of bid opening and will generally allow 14 days to submit a bid. More time will be allowed for those solicitations that are large or complex and warrant more bidding time.


4. Upon identification of the apparent low bidder, the bid will be reviewed for conformity to the solicitation requirements (i.e., responsiveness) and contractor responsibility must be considered. After an affirmative determination of contractor responsibility and price reasonableness, USACE will proceed with contract award.


5. The bid abstract will be made available to the entire PSL via e-mail. Firms or entities outside of the PSL will not be provided bid results. However, the award information (company name, address, and total amount) for a federal contract will be released publicly on SAM.GOV.

REQUESTS FOR INFORMATION

Interested parties shall submit questions concerning this announcement via Bidder Inquiry in ProjNet at www.projnet.org/projnet.

1. To submit and review inquiry items, interested parties will need to be a current registered user or self- register in the system. To self-register, go to the aforementioned web page and click on the BID tab, select Bidder Inquiry, Select agency USACE, and enter the Bidder Inquiry Key for this announcement {listed below), your email address, and then click . Verify all information on the next screen is correct and click .


2. From this page, you may view all bidder inquiries or add an inquiry.


3. Interested parties will receive an acknowledgement of their question via email, followed by an answer to their question after it has been processed by USACE Technical Review Team.


4. The Special Notice number is: W9128F19SC006


5. The Bidder Inquiry key is: P46W6K-3P93CB


6. Interested Parties are requested to review the Bidder Inquiry System for answer to questions prior to submission of a new inquiry.

The Bidder Inquiry call center can be contacted with questions concerning the use of Bidder Inquiry. The call center operates weekdays from 8am to 5pm Central time. The telephone number for the call center is 800-4289- HELP.

RESPONSES

Interested firms shall respond to this Prequalification of Sources announcement no later than 1 August 2019 to be eligible for the first solicitations issued. All interested firms must be actively registered at www.sam.gov using NAICS 237990 to be eligible for award of federal contracts.

Responses to this Prequalification of Sources announcement shall not exceed 12MB and shall contain:

1. Experience: Narrative identifying at least three earthwork contracts as stated in Paragraph 1 of QUALIFICATION REQUIREMENTS self-performed within the last 6 years. Narrative must be in sufficient detail to determine the type of work, location, timeframe, value, quantities, client, and whether it was a prime contract or subcontract. For PSL1 qualification, each project must have a value of at least $750,000 and 10,000 cubic yards of material. For PSL2 qualification, each project must have a value of at least $3,000,000 and 75,000 cubic yards of material. If your firm was a subcontractor, the value and quantities stated should be those of the subcontract, not the entire contract. Do not submit projects completed by teaming partners or planned subcontractors unless there is an approved joint venture or mentor-protege agreement. Narrative attachments shall be returned in a searchable Adobe PDF. Page Limitation: 10 pages.


2. Past Performance: Information that demonstrates satisfactory ratings by the client for all projects cited for Experience. The information should indicate the client's recommendation of the firm for future projects. A CPARS evaluation or its equivalent from the client would meet this requirement. If no rating exists, submit the attached Past Performance Questionnaire (PPQ) completed by the client. The name, address, phone, and e-mail of the client must be included in the submission. Information submitted by the firm regarding its own assessment of Past Performance may be disregarded. Page Limitation: None.


3. Bonding: A current letter from your firm's surety documenting the single bonding capability of at least $5 million and the aggregate bonding capability of at least $10 million for PSL1, or a single bonding capability of at least $10 million and the aggregate bonding capability of at least $20 million for PSL2. Page Limitation: 1 page.


4. Designated E-mail: Designate a single e-mail address for your firm to be utilized for all solicitation notices, solicitation postings, amendments, and bid abstracts under this PSL. It is recommended that this e-mail not be tied to any single person. The e-mail account must be able to receive e-mails of 10MB file size. If multiple e-mail addresses are provided, only the first e-mail address will be utilized.


5. Certifications: Certification by the principal of the firm regarding:
   
   
   
   1. CAGE code, eligibility for federal contract awards, and active registration in SAM.
   
   
   2. Business Classification: Certify your business's size standard under NAICS 237990 with a $36.5 million size standard. Include any other small business representations as well. In the event of a conflict with what is certified and what is in SAM, representations from SAM will be utilized by USACE.
   
   
   3. Local Firm: Certify whether your firm is a local firm pursuant to Paragraph 2 of SET- ASIDES in this notice. SAM will be utilized to verify residency certification. If you are certifying as a local firm pursuant to the primary business provision, you must submit compelling evidence that your primary business is derived from the disaster area. USACE is the final authority on determination of whether a firm is classified as local for the purposes of local area set-asides under this PSL. Firms that did not have residency or primary business revenues established in the disaster area as of March 13, 2019 may not be classified as local.
   
   
   4. Accuracy and Completeness: Certify that all information contained in the response is accurate and complete.
   
   
   
   

Attachments:

PSL Projects Missouri River Basin Past Performance Questionnaire

Added: Jul 22, 2019 3:13 pm Modified: Aug 16, 2019 12:48 pm

**PSL PROJECTS MISSOURI RIVER BASIN SPREADSHEET REVISED 22 JULY 2019.**

**Updated to read: A firm who is initially determined to not meet the qualification standards may re-submit its response no more than once every 90 days thereafter provided its qualifications have changed.

Attachments/Links