***7 March 2025: Amendement 0001: Extended quote due date until Friday, 14 March 2025.***
***7 March 2025: RFIs Answered:
Question 2: TL-3 guide rail system: Acceptability of erection and final assembly expectations: This particular rail system requires tensioning to be effective, and will not have complete integrity until fully assembled with the ends of the bridge in-place; is this understood by your team?
Answer 2: Performance requirements stated in the Statement of Work (SOW) for the bridge, while functioning as a bridge, will not be enforced until the bridge is fully installed and placed into service.
Question 3: TL-3 guide rail system: Acceptability of erection and final assembly expectations: During breakdown and transit of the bridge sections, is it acceptable to have these rails be removable?
Answer 3: The only requirement for transit is 1.m.: “All bridge components shall be capable of being packaged and shipped in standard 20-ft and/or 40-ft ISO shipping containers.”
Question 4: TL-3 guide rail system: Acceptability of erection and final assembly expectations: During breakdown and transit of the bridge sections, is it acceptable to have these rails be folding?
Answer 4: The only requirement for transit is 1.m.: “All bridge components shall be capable of being packaged and shipped in standard 20-ft and/or 40-ft ISO shipping containers.”
Question 5: ISO shipping containers: We'd like to explore the possibility of designing sections to deconstruct into the footprint of an ISO container, eliminating the need for insertion. Would your team consider this option?
Answer 5: The Statement of Work (SOW) is a very unique set of requirements; all designs and options will be considered.
Question 6: ISO shipping containers: The individual bridge sections will be difficult to load into a box that can only be opened on both ends and is covered on four sides, our ideal approach would be to design the bridge sections to 'fold' in a manner that allow them to become exactly like an ISO container shell to enable more efficient loading of remaining components and overall handling. Is this something your team would consider?
Answer 6: The Statement of Work (SOW) is a very unique set of requirements; all designs and options will be considered.
Question 7: ISO shipping containers: Does the 5,000lb provision under section 1 of the SOW apply to the loaded ISO container?
Answer 7: SOW Requirement 1.o states: “The bridge shall be capable of being erected, assembled and placed into final service location using a crane/load handling equipment with safe lifting capacity no greater than 5,000-lbs.” The 5,000lb provision in Requirement 1.o. refers to activities required to assemble of the bridge. The ISO Shipping Containers containing the bridge components will be transported and offloaded via cargo ship cranes with greater than 5000lb lifting capacity. All erection, assembly, and placement into final service activities will not have access to the same cargo ship cranes and must be able to be completed with a crane/load handling equipment that is only capable of 5,000lb lifting capacity.
Question 8: Provision 2 (SOW): Clarification on the requirement for one set of bridge launch equipment for cantilevered launch: Please provide more detail on this requirement; go-by's, sketches, etc. are most useful.
Answer 8: SOW Requirement 2 states: “The bridge supplier shall provide one set of bridge launch equipment for cantilevered launch.” The bridges will be used by trucks to traverse between a barge, being used as a floating pier in Winter Quarters Bay at McMurdo Station Antarctica, and the ice wharf on Ross Island, where cargo ship unloading and staging operations will be performed. Due to the remote nature of the location of use, there is no access to cranes with lifting capacity greater than 5,000lbs for use in assembling, erecting, and placing the bridge across the gap. The gap that the bridge must traverse is ~100ft, between the barge/floating pier and the wharf. The bridge must be placed over that gap using a cantilevered launch system. The cantilevered launch system will allow the bridge to be fully assembled on the ground on the wharf, and then slide off the side of the wharf and cantilevered across the gap between wharf and barge/floating pier, until it can be secured to the barge/floating pier. It is envisioned that the “bridge launch equipment” stated in the requirement includes some kind of launch tail, launch nose, and/or base plate that the bridge will slide on/off of and provide stability when the bridge is cantilevered across the gap. Both bridges must be able to be launched with 1 set of “bridge launch equipment”, and so the bridge launch equipment cannot be part of the design of the bridge, as it must be reused between completion of launching bridge 1 and starting to launch bridge 2.
Question 9: Provision 3 (SOW): Clarification on the requirement for three full military tool kits: Please provide more detail on this requirement; what differentiates this from other tools that would be employed in cold-weather service to aid in erection and disassembly of this structure.
Answer 9: SOW Requirement 3 states: “The bridge supplier shall provide three full military tool kits required to assemble the bridges, launch tail and/or nose and to facilitate the launching of the bridges.” The bridges will be assembled by the US Naval Construction Battalion (USN Seabees) at McMurdo Station in Antarctica. The remote nature of this project requires that 3 sets of each tool kit be provided for use to increase the speed of assembly and as backups in case tools are broken, damaged, lost, missing, etc. Safety of the tool operator must be taken into account when deciding which tools can be used, including but not limited to exposure to Antarctic weather and ability to be used while wearing cold-weather personal protective equipment. Tools must be able to be operated under extremely cold temperatures and windy conditions. Discussion and clarification between choosing the best tools to include in the tool kit can be discussed during negotiation and finalized post-award, however all potential costs shall be included in the proposal.
***25 February 2025: RFI Answered:
Question 1: Do you have any plans or a geotechnical report for the bridge? The SOW sounds like just a material quote, do you also need superstructure and abutment design as well?
Answer 1: The Government is not providing any geotechnical reports at this time. As outlined in the SOW, the Government will design the necessary foundations/abutments for the bridge to be installed on. The bridge supplier is responsible for providing engineering information and coordinating with the Government engineering team with regards to foundations and installation. The Government will be responsible for erecting the bridge components and installing the bridges.
The Philadelphia District of the Army Corps of Engineers on behalf of the Marine Design Center is soliciting for two prefabricated bridges for the National Science Foundation Offload Infrastructure Project – McMurdo Station Antarctica.
See attachments for full specifications and instruction.
Quotes shall be due to Katie Sayers at Katie.L.Sayers@usace.army.mil and Michael Hunter at Michael.J.Hunter@usace.army.mil no later than 10 March 2025 at 1:00 PM EST. No hard copies will be accepted.
