INTRODCTION. This is a SOURCES SOUGHT 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.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Northwestern Division, Omaha District (CENWO) has been tasked to identify interest in a Construction Contract for services in support of the US Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, US Dairy Forage Research Center (DFRC) at Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin. Responses to this Sources Sought announcement will be used by the Government to determine the appropriate level of small business participation and to develop the acquisition strategy decision.
CENWO will host a virtual industry day at 2:00pm CDT, 03 May 2023 (see Additional Information Section below)
BASED ON THE RESPONSES TO THIS SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE / MARKET RESEARCH, THIS REQUIREMENT MAY BE SET-ASIDE FOR SMALL BUSINESSES (IN FULL OR IN PART) OR PROCURED THROUGH FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION, and multiple awards MAY be made. All Small Business Set-Aside categories will be considered. Telephone inquiries will not be accepted or acknowledged, and no feedback or evaluations will be provided to companies regarding their submissions.
DISCLAIMER. This sources sought is for informational purposes only and 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 Sources Sought 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. IF A SOLICITATION IS RELEASED, IT WILL BE SYNOPSIZED ON THE GOVERNMENT-WIDE POINT OF ENTRY (GPE). IT IS THE RESPONSIBILITY OF POTENTIAL OFFERORS TO MONITOR THE GPE FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION PERTAINING TO THIS REQUIREMENT. Responses to this notice will not be considered adequate responses to a formal synopsis.
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 source selection process to be eligible for award of a Government contract.
PROJECT SCOPE. CENWO intends to acquire Construction Services for the replacement DFRC facility project. These Construction services may include, but not be limited to, government dairy production and research facility construction; lactating cow facilities; heifer and calf facilities; breeding areas; intensive animal feeding facility; emission chambers research facility; milking parlor(s); manure management system; feed storage and mixing facilities; data generation and transfer systems; laboratory areas and research rooms; field equipment storage and maintenance facilities; and administration and personnel support facilities.
The project is currently in design – nearing completion.
Estimated Construction Cost (ECC): The current ECC is between $25,000,000 and $100,000,000 Ref. DFARS 236.204 Disclosure of Magnitude.
Anticipated Construction Strategy: The project delivery method will be design-bid-build.
Project Details: The following information represents the various project objectives as that are currently known.
- The overall facility will accommodate up to 452 lactating cows (maximum), 144 calves, 1300 acres of crops production, 900 acres of pasture and perennials, 12 permanent researchers and staff, up to 12 operations and maintenance personnel, and up to 8 (maximum 10) student researchers. Water runoff management will be a high priority.
- Construction of approximately 254,003 BGSF of new production, research, operations, and maintenance facilities and supporting infrastructure.
- Lactating cow facility capable of supporting a total of up to 452 lactating cows plus 44 dry and transitioning cow accommodations. A Robotic Milking (RM) subunit consisting of 4 automated milking system (AMS) modules for 60 cows per module with each module outfitted with instrumentation capable of capturing individual animal dry matter and water intake measurements.
- An Advanced Animal Nutrition (AAN) subunit that would include 24 stalls of intensive animal feeding facility with housing, care, milking, and monitoring capabilities; an additional 24 similarly equipped tie stalls that would be used for transitioning animals to the experiments; and a “milk in place” inline milking system for the 48 tie stalls.
- An Animal Emissions (AE) subunit that would include 4 emission chambers for ammonia and greenhouse gas emission monitoring compartments capable of accommodating 1 animal/compartment.
- A Free Stall Pen (FSP) subunit that would include pens for 8 cows and at least free stalls enough to provide a 100% stocking rate for up to 160 cows (20 pens) and instrumentation capable of capturing individual animal dry matter and water intake measurements
- A Calf Development (CD) subunit for the rearing of up to 144 calves on-site providing at least 50% of their annual DM intake from pasture and forages grown on non-annual cropland, equipped with animal handling, manure management, and paddocks. It is anticipated that this subunit will be located at the existing research center in renovated/adapted buildings.
- Animal breeding, treatment, and medical facility.
- Milking parlor capable of supporting 500 dairy cows.
- Manure management system with adequate, on-site storage lagoon(s)
- Laboratories and research rooms capable of facilitating ongoing and future experiments.
- Field equipment storage and maintenance facilities; fertilizer, pesticide, and non-pesticide storage.
- Administration and personnel facilities with office space, admin storage, conference, locker/break rooms, and meeting space.
- A dormitory/kitchenette-type facility for students and/or technicians conducting “round the clock” sampling procedures which would provide them with small desks upon which to work, facilities to prep a meal, and bunks in which they may rest/sleep in between sampling times.
- Construction of approximately 44,000 BGSF silage and feed storage facilities and supporting infrastructure.
- Ample and flexible space for bunk silos and bagged silage
- Tanks for liquid feeds
- Soybean storage and roasting capabilities.
- Covered bag feed storage, “feed kitchen” (ration mixing area), and systems capable of providing consistent feed mixing results.
REQUIRED CAPABILITIES. If your organization has the potential capacity to perform these construction services, please provide the following information: 1) Organization name, address, email address, Web site address, telephone number, and size and type of ownership for the organization; and 2) Tailored capability statements addressing the particulars of this effort, with appropriate documentation supporting claims of organizational and staff capability. If significant subcontracting or teaming is anticipated in order to deliver technical capability, organizations should address the administrative and management structure of such arrangements
The Government will evaluate market information to ascertain potential market capacity to: 1) provide services consistent, in scope and scale, with those described in this notice and otherwise anticipated; 2) secure and apply the full range of corporate financial, human capital, and technical resources required to successfully perform similar requirements; 3) implement a successful project management plan that includes: compliance with tight project schedules; cost containment; meeting and tracking performance; hiring and retention of key personnel and risk mitigation; and 4) provide construction services under USACE contract.
ELIGIBILITY. The North American Industrial Classification Code (NAICS) for this requirement is: 236220, “Commercial and Institutional Building Construction”. The related size standard is: $39.5M. Businesses of all sizes are encouraged to respond; however, each respondent must clearly identify their business size in their capabilities statement.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION AND SUBMISSION DETAILS (VIRTUAL INDUSTRY DAY). CENWO intends to hold a teleconference for interested parties where additional project information may be provided and limited questions may be addressed. The teleconference is scheduled to start at 2:00 PM CDT 03 May 2023. Please note, all information to be discussed is subject to change as additional project details become available.
To register for this Virtual Industry Day, interest parties shall email Adam Beaver, at adam.l.beaver@usace.army.mil, by noon (CDT) on 02 May 2023. The email shall include:
SUBJECT: “Prairie du Sac DFRC Construction Sources Sought – Teleconference Info Request”; &
CONTENT: Business name, address, CAGE code, attendees’ names, & a point of contact phone number and email. Additionally, you may include any questions, recommendations, or concerns your business has which may influence the acquisition strategy.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION AND SUBMISSION DETAILS (CAPABILITIES STATEMENT) Interested parties are requested to submit a capabilities statement of no more than ten (10) pages in length in Times New Roman font of not less than 10 pitch. Additionally please complete, and return, the sources sought response form attachment (B.01.03)SSN-W9128F23SC011-Sources_Sought_Response_Form.xlsx) with your submission. Formal responses to this Sources Sought notice must be submitted electronically (via email) with SUBJECT: Sources Sought – Prairie du Sac DFRC Construction contract, to adam.l.beaver@usace.army.mil no later than noon CDT, 08 May 2023. All successfully submitted responses will receive an acknowledgement by return email. Please allow up to 48 hours for receipt of acknowledgement. ANY RESPONSES RECEIVED AFTER THE SPECIFIED DATE AND TIME WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED. NOTE: The excel form will not count against your page limitation, however, any information entered into the form must also be in your Sources Sought Response/Capabilities Document, it shall not be used to supplement your response. Any information in the form that is missing from, or inconsistent with, your response will not be considered in our evaluation of your response.
All responses to this Sources Sought must address, at a minimum, the following items:
- Company's name, address, point of contact, phone number, e-mail address, CAGE and UEI number.
- Interested parties should demonstrate through references, project lists, or reports, they possess experience, and capacity to successfully execute a project of this size and scope.
- Provide relevant information on the company's experience/capabilities as it pertains to the proposed work outlined in the Project Scope. For example, what type of work has your company performed in the past of the same or similar requirement? Can, or has, your company managed a requirement of this nature, please provide details? Can, or has, your company managed a team of subcontractors before, please provide details? What specific technical skills does your company possess which ensure capability to successfully perform this requirement?
- The Government may consider the relevant experience and past performance of key individuals and predecessor companies in evaluating the company's experience and past performance factors. Company’s should address, within the content limitations above, the extent of small business participation in the projects submitted.
- Provide a maximum of three project examples, similar in size, scope and complexity to the work described in paragraph 3 of this notice, with a brief description of each project, customer name, timeliness of performance, contract number, customer satisfaction, and the final project dollar value.
- Provide a statement including current small/large business status and company profile, to include number of employees, annual revenue history, office locations, UEI, etc.
- Respondents to this notice also must indicate whether they qualify as a Small, Small Disadvantaged, Women-Owned, HUBZone, or Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business Concern.
The Government may verify information in CPARS or PPIRS.
The proposed contract is anticipated to include features of work that will be accomplished by labor categories that are subject to the Davis-Bacon Act or a collective bargaining agreement.
Upon evaluation of the capability statements, if it is determined that this requirement will be an unrestricted competition, the Government intends to evaluate the Small-Business responses and conduct further market research to identify a subcontracting goals.
Your response to this Sources Sought, including any capabilities statement, shall be electronically submitted to the Contract Specialist, Adam Beaver, in either Microsoft Word or Portable Document Format(PDF), via email at adam.l.beaver@usace.army.mil. The response shall have no more than ten (10) pages in length in Times New Roman font of not less than 10 pitch, including cover pages, pictures, or other documentation. Please return the attached exel form back in excel format, as noted above, the excel form will not count against your page limitation, however, any information entered into the form must also be in your Sources Sought Response/Capabilities Document, it shall not be used to supplement your response. Any information in the form that is missing from, or inconsistent with, your response will not be considered in our evaluation of your response.
All data received in response to this Sources Sought that is marked or designated as corporate or proprietary will be fully protected from any release outside the Government.
No phone calls will be accepted.
All questions must be submitted to the contract specialist identified above. The Government is not committed nor obligated to pay for the information provided, and no basis for claims against the Government shall arise as a result of a response to this Sources Sought.
