**Amendment**
**UPDATE** Bridge
maintenance will be occurring on Forest Service Road 447 between the Garnet area and
Highway 3. Accessibility via this route will be extremely limited, and the road will be closed
for the majority of 2024. The new primary route to the Garnet area will be Forest Service
Road 447 from Highway 6 North of Harvard, Idaho.
Please see attached SF30 and CSS 1284LL24Q0029 Amendment 1 for full details.
(i) This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial items prepared in accordance with the format in subpart 12.6 of the Federal Acquisition Regulation, as supplemented with additional information included in this notice. This announcement constitutes the only solicitation; proposals are being requested, and a written solicitation will not be issued.
(ii) This solicitation is issued as a Request for Quotation (RFQ).
(iii) The solicitation document and incorporated provisions and clauses are those in effect through Federal Acquisition Circular 2024-02.
(iv) This procurement is set aside for small businesses. The NAICS code is 238910 and the Small Business Size Standard is $19 million.
(vi) Description of Requirement (including a list of any attachments)
- Background and Purpose
The St. Joe Ranger District in the Idaho Panhandle National Forests has developed the garnet area as a place where the public may collect garnets. The Forest Service provides a stockpile of garnet-bearing material from which visitors can gather and run through two stations in search of garnets. Visitors will take garnet-bearing material from the dig pile to a dry sifting station and place their gravel material into buckets for washing at the sluicing station. Once the gravel material has been washed at the sluices and screened for garnets, the non-garnet-bearing gravels are piled in the tailings pile located across the road from the sluices.
Garnet Area season starts Memorial Day Weekend each year, lasting through Labor Day Weekend. Maintenance Cycles shall occur every two weeks to prevent sediment buildup at the Dry Sifting station and Gravel Tailings pile. The sediment pond located downhill of the sluices shall be cleaned out once a month, and large rocks shall be removed from the base of the stockpile. All loads of sediment and large rock material shall be taken to the staging area located approximately 0.09 miles Southwest of the dig site.
Location of work. The maintenance work is located at the Emerald Creek Garnet Area. The proposed project is in 281 Gulch in the Emerald Creek drainage south of Fernwood, Idaho, in Latah County, T42N, R1E, Section 8. The project location is accessible by vehicle from State Highway 3 and Forest Service Road 447, south of Fernwood, Idaho. The Emerald Creek Garnet Area is approximately 0.2 miles up Road 3781 off Road 447. A Vicinity Map and Site Map are included, with approximate locations depicted.
2.0 Definitions
CO – Contracting Officer - This means a person with the authority to enter into, administer, and/or terminate contracts and make related determinations and findings.
COR – Contracting Officer’s Representative - This means an individual, including a contracting officer’s technical representative (COTR), designated and authorized in writing by the contracting officer to perform specific technical or administrative functions.
3.0 Technical Requirements / Tasks
The contractor shall furnish all labor, equipment, supervision, transportation, supplies, and incidentals to perform all work specified.
Work shall occur outside of time when the site is open to the public. The site is open to the public from Memorial weekend through Labor Day weekend, from 08:30 am to 4:00 pm, between Friday and Monday each week. This means contractors' work on the site shall be performed between Tuesday and Thursday.
3.1 Maintenance Cycle
One maintenance cycle includes removing, depositing, loading, hauling, and stockpiling.
3.1.1 Remove and Deposit.
3.1.1.1 Remove fine material (sifted dirt) from the Sifting Area (approximately 1 to 3 truckloads) and stockpile it at the Dirt Stockpile Area within .25 miles.
3.1.1.2 Remove large rocks (up to 3 feet in diameter) from the Digging Pile and haul them to the Gravel Stockpile Area. Reshape the Digging Pile (piling the dirt from in front of and around the Digging Pile back on top of the pile).
3.1.1.3 Remove discarded gravel spoils from the Gravel Spoils Deposit Area (approximately 1 to 2 truckloads) and deposit this material in the Gravel Stockpile Area.
3.1.1.4 Remove the previous week’s dried coarse material (approximately 2 to 4 truckloads) from the sediment drying area and deposit it at the Dirt Stockpile Area.
3.1.2 Load and Haul.
3.1.2.1 Load the previous week’s dried sediment material, which has been deposited in the sediment drying area.
3.1.2.2 Load the fine-sifted material from the sifting area, gravel spoils from the gravel spoils deposit area, and large rocks from the digging pile and transport these materials to their designated piles at the stockpile area within .25 miles.
3.1.3 Stockpile.
Stockpile the hauled material at the Stockpile Area. Per the attached map, there will be one Dirt Stockpile Area for both the fine sifted material and the coarse dried material and a separate Gravel Stockpile Area for the gravel spoils and large rocks.
3.2 Settling Pond Clean Up.
Use equipment with sufficient reach (up to 21 feet, if using a backhoe) to facilitate the removal of the coarse sediment material from the coarse settling pond and deposit this material on the sediment drying area to dry. Water is in the settling pond, and the sediments will be wet. The coarse settling pond is partially lined with large riprap, which must be maintained in place. The coarse settling pond is limited in the space available for a backhoe to work.
(viii) 52.212-1 Instructions to Offerors – Commercial Products and Commercial Services (SEP 2023) (Provision)
Addenda to provision 52.212-1:
For simplified acquisitions, the word quote or quoter is substituted in provision 52.212-1 for the word offer or offeror.
Addenda to Provision 52.212-1 paragraph (b) Submission of Offers:
1) Offerors shall have an active entity registration in the System for Award Management in order to submit an offer. https://www.sam.gov/SAM/
2) Offers submitted in response to this solicitation shall include a technical proposal, a price proposal, and contractor representations and certifications.
a) Technical Proposal – The technical proposal shall address the evaluation factors in 52.212-2. At a minimum, the technical proposal shall include:
i) Experience Questionnaire – attached to this solicitation will be an experience questionnaire.
ii) Technical Capability – Provide a narrative on what the capabilities are for your company and how those capabilities will satisfy this requirement. Provide a narrative on how you will meet the timeline of the project.
iii) Past Performance –The government may use past performance information from any available source. If a company does not have past performance information available, information may be provided for predecessor companies, key personnel, or subcontractors. If there is no past performance information available, the offeror will receive a neutral rating in this factor.
b) Price Proposal – Complete the schedule of items located in section five of this combined solicitation synopsis.
c) Representations and Certifications – Fill in the check boxes for provisions 52.204-24, and 52.212-3.
3) Submit documentation by emailing to shawn.trout@usda.gov to deliver it into this inbox by the due date and time. Emails shall contain 3 separate attachments (Technical Proposal, Price Proposal, and Representations and Certifications) in Microsoft Word, Excel, or Adobe PDF format.
4) Please email Shawn Trout at Shawn.trout@usda.gov with questions about this solicitation by April 2nd, 2024; questions asked after that time may not be answered.
5) All quotes and documentation for this solicitation will be due on April 12th, 2024, by 3:00PM EST.
Addenda to Provision 52.212-1 paragraph (f) Late submissions:
Replace (f)(2)(i) with the following:
Any offer, modification, revision, or withdrawal of an offer received at the Government office designated in the solicitation after the exact time specified for receipt of offers is "late" and will not be considered unless it is received before award is made and the Contracting Officer determines that accepting the late offer would not unduly delay the acquisition. Delete 52.212-(f)(2)(i) paragraphs A, B, C.
Please see attached CSS for the full solicitation.
