SOLICITATION NOTICE
A -- Broad Agency Announcement for Acceleration of TRANSIMS Deployment
- Notice Date
- 4/27/2007
- Notice Type
- Solicitation Notice
- NAICS
- 541710
— Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences
- Contracting Office
- Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), Office of Acquisition Management, HAAM, Room 4410 400 7th Street, S.W., Washington, DC, 20590, UNITED STATES
- ZIP Code
- 00000
- Solicitation Number
- DTFH61-07-R-00135
- Response Due
- 6/28/2007
- Archive Date
- 10/30/2007
- Description
- ACCELERATION OF TRANSIMS DEPLOYMENT REQUEST FOR BAA PROPOSALS Section 5512 of the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU), Public Law 109-59, provides funding for the acceleration of the Transportation Analysis and Simulation System (TRANSIMS) deployment, training on the use of TRANSIMS and development of new applications of TRANSIMS. The goal of this Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) is to support applied research and scientific study directed toward increasing knowledge and understanding to broaden the TRANSIMS user base and to provide for applications of TRANSIMS representing a diversity of populations, geographic regions and analytical methods. Multiple awards are possible and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has an interest not only in the individual offers but also in the selected projects collectively meeting the goals of the BAA. Therefore, this BAA solicitation will be conducted in two Phases, an optional Pre-proposal Phase and the Proposal Phase. The Pre-proposal Phase involves the submission of a short white paper describing the proposed project and partnering arrangements. FHWA will provide feedback on the white paper, making recommendations for changes to the project to better meet the requirements of the BAA solicitation. The Proposal Phase is the request for complete BAA proposal submissions. BACKGROUND. The Transportation Analysis and Simulation System (TRANSIMS) is an agent-based travel simulation system designed to meet the State Department of Transportations? (DOTs') and Metropolitan Planning Organizations? (MPOs') need for more accurate and more sensitive travel forecasts for transportation planning and emissions analysis. It consists of mutually supporting simulations, models, and databases. By employing advanced computational and analytical techniques, it creates an integrated environment for regional transportation system analysis. Because TRANSIMS simulates and tracks travel by individuals, the benefits to and impacts on different geographies and travel markets can be evaluated as well. Furthermore, TRANSIMS has the capability to evaluate highly congested scenarios and operational changes on highways and transit systems. TRANSIMS differs from previous travel demand forecasting methods in its underlying concepts and structure. These differences include a consistent and continuous representation of time; a detailed representation of persons and households; time-dependent routing; and a person-based microsimulator. There are four primary modules: Population synthesizer, Activity generator, Route planner, and Traffic microsimulator. Using these components, a model may be constructed that estimates activities for individuals and households, plans trips satisfying those activities, assigns trips to routes, and creates a microsimulation of all persons, vehicles and resulting traffic on modeled transport systems in given study area. Researchers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (http://www.lanl.gov) designed and developed the original TRANSIMS algorithms and software. The design for TRANSIMS is based on requirements in the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA) (Public Law (PL) 102-240), the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21) (PL 105-178) as amended by the TEA 21 Restoration Act (PL 105-206), and the Clean Air Act of 1990 (PL 101-549) Amendments. The development of TRANSIMS has been funded by the Federal Highway Administration with support from the Federal Transit Administration, the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Transportation Policy of the United States Department of Transportation, and by the Environmental Protection Agency. CURRENT STATUS. TRANSIMS development has proceeded along several lines. These include development of application methods, software and supporting utilities. Methods Development. Currently USDOT is sponsoring the development of a tour-based model, using TRANSIMS, in Portland, Oregon. The effort has been divided into two tracks: Track 1 uses existing trip tables, combined with the TRANSIMS Router and Microsimulator, to develop regional simulations of travel. The Track 1 effort has demonstrated that using network and trip table data currently available at most MPOs, regional simulations can be conducted. As part of the Track 1 effort utilities have been developed to convert existing networks and trip tables to TRANSIMS format. Track 2, currently underway, will develop tour based forecasting procedure based on the Portland transportation network and demand data available to the Portland MPO. Track 2 is expected to be completed by June of 2007. Software. The software and source code is now available under an the NASA Open Source Agreement v1.3. This license makes the source code publicly available and requires that any changes to the original code also be made publicly available. For further information on the license see http://www.opensource.org/licenses/nasa1.3.php. In addition to the core software, supporting utilities have been developed based on the work in Portland, these utilities include methods to convert node and link data into TRANSIMS format, to estimate intersection signalization and to assist with data preparation and application. The TRANSIMS software is written in standard C++. 32-bit and 64-bit binaries are available for Linux and Windows (pre-Vista). Support is available via documentation and forums on http://transims-opensource.net/index.php. The source code is available from http://sourceforge.net/projects/transims/. OBJECTIVES. FHWA seeks to expand the knowledge, understanding and implementation of TRANSIMS capabilities and applications, and seeks to develop new approaches/tools/applications covering a diversity of methods, users and geographic area. Prospective offerors will submit proposals which: 1. Increase deployment of TRANSIMS, and/or 2. Broaden the TRANSIMS user base, and/or 3. Develop new applications of TRANSIMS. INSTRUCTIONS FOR PREPARATION OF PROPOSALS. The scope of this announcement is intentionally broad to invite innovation and to provide the FHWA the flexibility to sponsor research which best addresses its objectives. In keeping with FHWA's desire for innovation and flexibility, the specific approach in the selected proposals will vary and will be negotiated. Any resulting contracts will contain appropriate federal agency clauses for the type of procurement vehicle awarded. Prior to award, the Offeror shall be required to submit 'Certifications and Representations.' Data and reporting requirements will be negotiated with the firm(s) selected for award(s). As stated previously, the objectives of this solicitation are to expand the knowledge, understanding and implementation of TRANSIMS capabilities and applications, develop new approaches/tools/applications covering a diversity of methods, users and geographic area which will increase TRANSIMS deployment, broaden the user base and to develop new applications. Multiple awards are anticipated and offers will be selected so as to meet these objectives individually as well as collectively. That is, individual offers may be stronger in specific objectives and taken as a whole the selected offers will support all objectives. The proposal submission shall be conducted in two phases; 1) an optional Pre-proposal Phase for FHWA review and comment, and 2) The Proposal Phase which is the request for complete BAA proposal submissions. Pre-proposal Phase To improve the quality of proposals, offerors may submit a short Pre-proposal describing their proposed work and partnering arrangements. The Pre-proposals shall address the problem statement, workplan, data sources, rough order of magnitude (ROM) budget, staffing and planned agency support (Formal agency support is not required at this time although we suggest that the Pre-proposals be coordinated with the agency). Offerors should refer to the BAA Evaluation Criteria to ensure that their Pre-proposal addresses the FHWA's requirements. The pre-proposals shall include: BAA Number, project title, name of organization, principal investigator and contact information on the first page. After receiving the Pre-proposals, FHWA will provide comments to offerors on strengths and weaknesses of the proposed projects and make recommendations for changes in the final submission. FHWA shall make all material submitted as part of a pre-proposal and feedback on specific proposals confidential. The material shall not distributed to other offerors. Pre-proposals are limited to four single sided typewritten pages, double spaced, 12 point font, with one inch margins on all sides and shall be in Microsoft Word 2003 or equivalent, or Adobe portable document format (pdf). Offerors may submit a proposal without having submitted a Pre-proposal. Pre-proposals must be submitted via electronic mail, and must be received by FHWA on or before 4:00 PM (local time) on May 17, 2007. Facsimile transmissions or hard copy transmissions of the Pre-proposal will not be accepted. Pre-proposals shall be sent to rick.murray@fhwa.dot.gov and to melissa.rosendorf@fhwa.dot.gov. Comments will be provided to offerors by June 1, 2007. PROPOSAL PHASE. Refer to the attached solicitation package for detailed instructions. CONTRACT PERIOD. The contract period is negotiable but shall be no more than 18 months from date of award. CLARIFICATIONS AND ADDITIONAL INFORMATION. Experience in running TRANSIMS is desirable but not essential. Funding must be sufficient to cover the scope of the proposed project. Additional resources from other than Federal sources are encouraged. Applications will be evaluated on the ability to accomplish the offeror's proposed scope and resources. Since the overall goal is the dissemination of TRANSIMS and building a TRANSIMS user community, consortiums of applicants are encouraged. Consortiums may include, but are not limited to, combinations of consulting firms, universities and MPOs or State DOTs. All proposals must have the endorsement of a planning agency and a process for the planning agency to review results. Consortiums may be led by a university, a consulting firm or a planning agency. The Department of Transportation is developing a TRANSIMS installation package which will include TRANSIMS software, test set ups to support the installation of the software and test data sets. Offerors are expected to provide problem data and computer capability. Each proposal shall include an initial task to install TRANSIMS and successfully verify installation using the test procedures and data prior to commencement of the rest of the project. In the event the installation package is not complete at the time of the award, commencement of the project will be delayed until the package is available. Peer reviews will play a key role in deployment. These peer reviews will be funded and implemented separately from the deployment funding, however Offerors should budget and schedule resources for preparation and presentation as well as commenting on the peer review report. An initial peer review will be conducted upon completion of the base year model to examine approach, calibration, and validation results. If the work plan includes additional scenarios or future forecasts, the initial peer review will also include the plans for implementing and applying the additional model capability. A final peer review will be conducted upon completion of the analysis. Each peer review is expected to last no more than two days and be comprised of no more than five peers. Awards are anticipated to be made prior to September 30, 2007. EVALUATION OF PROPOSALS AND AWARD EVALUATION CRITERIA. Proposals received will be evaluated in accordance with the evaluation criteria specified herein through a peer review process. The primary basis for selecting proposals for acceptance shall be technical, importance to agency programs, and funding availability. Cost realism and reasonableness shall also be considered to the extent appropriate. Technical factors are more important than cost factors, and technical evaluation will be based on the following criteria listed in descending order of importance: 1. Ability to complete the proposed work within available resources, 2. Level of commitment by the planning agency to the proposed project. One of the primary objectives of this deployment is the use of TRANSIMS by planning agencies. Use does not necessarily mean installing and running TRANSIMS but does imply integrating the results of TRANSIMS into the agency decision-making process. It is not expected for agencies to immediately commit to the use of TRANSIMS, but priority will be given to agencies, which express an interest in the use of the results, 3. Broadening of the TRANSIMS user community - While agencies use the results of model, universities and consulting firms play a critical role in the dissemination of new technologies. Universities play a role through research and training of students on transportation planning methods. Consultants have developed most of the models in use in the United States. Proposals, which involve Universities, consultants or others, who play a major role in technology deployment are encouraged; 4. The ability of the proposed analyses to take advantage of TRANSIMS capabilities. TRANSIMS is a new technology with new capabilities. Offerors should carefully review the capabilities of TRANSIMS and identify how those capabilities address the proposed application. Offerors should address in full each of the above criteria in Part I, Technical Proposal. The comprehensiveness and quality of the proposed research study, especially the completeness of the proposed work plan, will contribute significantly in the selection process, and innovative solutions, approaches and techniques which address the stated objectives will be considered. The offeror's ability to identify technical needs and to design a study to meet these needs within budget are essential skills in the accomplishment of the announcement objectives. The FHWA reserves the right to select for award any, all, part or none of the proposals submitted. AWARD CRITERIA. The Government anticipates that approximately $600,000 will be dedicated to this program, subject to availability of funds, and anticipates making multiple awards. It is anticipated that no single proposal will be funded for more than $300,000 in federal funds. This Broad Agency Announcement does not commit the Government to pay for response preparation costs. ELIGIBILITY. All responsible sources may submit a proposal that shall be considered by the FHWA. Consortium arrangements and industrial partnering agreements are encouraged.
- Place of Performance
- Address: to be determined
- Zip Code: 20590
- Country: UNITED STATES
- Zip Code: 20590
- Record
- SN01282834-W 20070429/070427220617 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
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