SOLICITATION NOTICE
R -- Transportation Economics Center
- Notice Date
- 6/17/2008
- Notice Type
- Presolicitation
- NAICS
- 541990
— All Other Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services
- Contracting Office
- Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), Office of Acquisition Management, HAAM, Mail Stop E65-101, 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE, Washington, District of Columbia, 20590
- ZIP Code
- 20590
- Solicitation Number
- DTOS59-08-R-00012
- Archive Date
- 7/31/2009
- Point of Contact
- James H Mowery III,, Phone: 202-366-4959, James H Mowery III,, Phone: 202-366-4959
- E-Mail Address
-
james.mowery@dot.gov, james.mowery@dot.gov
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- This notice is NOT a Solicitation----what you are now reading is merely a Synopsis (also known as a “Pre-Solicitation Notice”). (A Solicitation for this project will be published HEREAFTER, in this same FedBizOpps website.) There is NO INCUMBENT CONTRACTOR. At the level of the PRIME offeror (prime contractor), competition under this procurement is LIMITED to colleges, universities, and non-profit organizations. To repeat: Each PRIME offeror MUST be a college, a university, or a non-profit organization. However, a prime offeror may propose to use one or more commercial (i.e., profit-oriented) organizations as SUBcontractors, provided that each proposed commercial sub meets the small business size-standard associated with North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Code 541990. A prime offeror may also propose to use, as subcontractors, one or more colleges, universities or non-profit organizations; and any such proposed NON-commercial subs need NOT meet any size-standard. The information set forth in this Synopsis is ALL of the information that DOT plans to release concerning this procurement, until DOT hereafter publishes this procurement’s Solicitation in FedBizOpps. Therefore, please HOLD YOUR QUESTIONS until after you have carefully studied the forthcoming Solicitation. The due date shown above is only an ESTIMATED due date for DOT’s receipt of proposals. The ACTUAL due date for proposals will be specified in the SOLICITATION hereafter published in this FedBizOpps website. The U. S. Department of Transportation (DOT) hopes to award ONE and ONLY one Indefinite Delivery / Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) Task Order Contract from this procurement. It is anticipated that the contract will have one Base Year and four Option Years. Under the resulting IDIQ contract, any particular Task Order might be fixed-price, or cost-plus-fixed-fee, or labor-hour, or time-and-materials—or might have some other reimbursement structure. Only $500,000 of grand total Federal funding is budgeted for this entire project, and it is therefore anticipated that each offeror’s proposal will: (a) show a grand total proposed Federal price of exactly $500,000, as counted across all five potential years of this project; and (b) include complete SUPPORT for every pricing RATE (including every pricing rate applicable to the PRIME offeror, and including every SUBcontractor pricing rate, and including every hourly CONSULTING rate) that the offeror used in compiling its cost proposal; and (c) offer the highest level of quality and the greatest amount of value, to DOT and to the taxpayers, that can possibly be provided by that offeror for the offeror’s total proposed Federal price of $500,000. A DRAFT----not necessarily final----Statement of Work for this project immediately follows and is enclosed in five opening asterisks and five closing asterisks; and, after that draft Statement of Work, some DRAFT information concerning this project’s estimated staffing is also given in this Synopsis. *****[This is the BEGINNING of this project’s DRAFT Statement of Work.] Objective: To establish a Transportation Economics Center (TEC) that will mobilize the analytic capabilities of the transportation economics community to assist the Office of Transportation Policy (OTP) in addressing important transportation policy issues, including through the conduct of research that applies economics to transportation policy issues, through organizing training and symposia to promote the use of economics in addressing transportation policy issues, and through other methods as appropriate. The Center will have an administrative structure that will ensure its ability to accomplish its objective on a continuing basis with a management and governing structure as approved by the OTP. The Center will have access to a broad range of tools and resources that can be applied to task orders from the OTP. The Center will be operated on the CONTRACTOR’s premises----NOT in a Federal building. The TEC will undertake research projects, including both major long-term studies and quick turn-around policy analyses that focus on the development and application of economic analysis tools in supporting policies for transportation congestion reduction, optimal investment in transportation infrastructure, technological innovation, and the financing of transportation investments and operations. Research would be conducted by outside experts under contract to the TEC and by scholars in residence at DOT. The Center would conduct seminars and provide on-going training in transportation economics and infrastructure finance, and provide an opportunity for academic transportation economists to serve as visiting scholars during sabbatical years. While the use of most of the TEC’s resources for research, seminars, etc. would be subject to prior task approval from the OTP, a small portion of the TEC’s resources would be available for self-initiated exploratory research, literature scans, travel, and other activities necessary to accomplish its mission of supporting the OTP’s policy-making role. It is expected that the TEC would act, on a continuing basis, to bring to the attention of OTP policymakers developments in transportation economics that would be applicable in resolving OTP policy issues. The TEC would both propose areas for further research exploration and education and respond to taskings from OTP. Background: The OTP requires the ability to develop analytic responses to a variety of transportation policy issues based on sound economic principles and advanced analytic techniques that will assist in providing the Secretary of Transportation with sound and defensible guidance, responding to inquiries from the Congress, preparation of Congressional testimony and proposed legislation, and evaluating and strengthening policy-oriented products from the Operating Administrations within the DOT. Of particular importance are issues related to the allocation of Federal transportation resources in addressing congestion, finance, safety, and environmental problems in a cost-beneficial manner. The advantages and disadvantages of alternative financing methods will continue to be of major importance and will require the development and application of sophisticated economic analysis in guiding future policies and legislation. Over the next few years Congress will be addressing the reauthorization of surface and aviation transportation legislation and the Department will require the ability to provide economic based analyses in formulating, defending, and critiquing proposals that can lead to more efficient transportation investments and policies. DOT staff also have a continuing need for exposure to the most current economic thinking and advances in analytic tool development from academicians and others. Seminars, symposia, and lecture series developed by the TEC will help to meet this need. Scholars in residence at DOT will also provide this exposure on a direct person-to-person basis. Further, the TEC should inform the OTP of research results that have important implications for transportation policy development as applied to investment and finance. Tasks: The following are the primary tasks that the TEC would be required to undertake using a variety of analytic and organizational skills and the capacity to reach out to academicians and other experts in providing high quality economic analysis results in a timely manner: 1.Establish the Transportation Economics Center. Develop an administrative structure and organization and management plan. The management plan shall include the name, qualifications, and level of effort of a proposed director of the TSC and level of staff assistance that would ensure the ability of the TEC to accomplish its objective through the contract period. 2.Prepare summaries of important transportation economic papers, research findings, and related sources that inform the OTP of current developments. Prepare research and other proposals for evaluation and approval by the OTP. 3.Organize seminars, symposia, and conferences on issues related to efficiency of transportation operations and investment, finance, safety, and environmental impacts. Develop other communications media (e.g. newsletters, listservs, etc.) as appropriate. 4Organize and conduct training in transportation economics and investment finance. DOT’s DRAFT estimate is that the contractor, in each and every separate year of this project, will develop, organize, and conduct, in Washington, D. C., one 2- day training course that will have approximately 25 attendees (“students”). 5.Arrange for academicians and other outside experts to serve as visiting scholars in the OTP. 6. Accomplish other tasks as needed to achieve TEC’s objective. PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE: Funding in the amount of $100,000 will be available for this project’s Base Year when the contract is awarded. The remaining $400,000 will be allocated to the project’s Option Years on a year-by-year basis (but only if, and only to the extent that, DOT exercises those Options), and in accordance with the proposed work for each year as approved by the Contracting Officer. DELIVERABLES: There is no specific set of deliverables that can be pre-specified. The deliverables will be determined by specific task order requests from the OTP as well as by the need for periodic summary reports on research from academic and other sources. Each offeror’s INITIALLY-submitted proposal for this project (i.e., proposal for the IDIQ Task Order contract) shall include a detailed work plan for the first year (i.e., the Base Year) of the contract and a detailed management plan that describes how each activity proposed for the first year will be managed by the TEC staff or by outside organizations or individuals under subcontract arrangements with the TEC. The management plan shall also indicate the approximate amount of resources to be spent on each activity. The winning offeror’s detailed work plan for the first year of this project may be amended, through the mutual consent of the contractor and DOT, as the result of discussions that would likely be held within the first month or two of the contract’s Base Year. [This is the END of this project’s DRAFT Statement of Work.]***** The following is a DRAFT-----not necessarily final----staffing estimate that DOT believes MAY reflect what is needed for this project. The Center Director should have a graduate degree and a minimum of ten years of work experience relevant to this project. For any ONE year of the project, it is estimated that the Center Director might devote 25, 50, 80, 10, 10, and 10 hours to Tasks 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6, respectively. A Transportation Economist / Analyst should have a graduate degree and five years of work experience relevant to this project. For any ONE year of the project, it is estimated that the Transportation Economist / Analyst might devote 10, 50, 50, 15, 20 and 5 hours to Tasks 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6, respectively. A Training Course Instructor should have a graduate degree and a minimum of five years of work experience relevant to this project. For any ONE year of the project, it is estimated that the Training Course Instructor would devote zero, zero, 10, 20, zero, and zero hours to Tasks 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6, respectively. An Administrative Assistant should have at least a high school diploma and at least one year of work experience relevant to this project, and should be able to use a personal computer and use basic office software and basic computer functions such as Word, Excel, calendars, and e-mail. For any ONE year of the project, it estimated that the Administrative Assistant might devote 25, 25, 75, 25, 25, and 22 hours to Tasks 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6, respectively. DOT wishes to emphasize that the foregoing DRAFT staffing estimate, and the staffing estimate that will hereafter appear in the Solicitation for this project, are NOT intended as PRESCRIBED parameters for an offeror’s proposed staffing. Instead, and to repeat what was said above, it is anticipated that each offeror will compile its proposal in such a way as to offer the highest level of quality and the greatest amount of value, to DOT and to the taxpayers, that can possibly be provided by that offeror for the offeror’s total proposed Federal price of $500,000. In selecting the winning offeror (i.e., the contract awardee), DOT will also take into consideration the Past Performance of the competing offerors. DOT’s DRAFT estimate for this project’s UN-loaded travel costs is $6,000 PER YEAR. But DOT is NOT prescribing any particular travel dollar-figure(s) for offerors to propose. (All travel must, of course, be done and billed in accordance with Government Travel Regulations.) DOT’s DRAFT estimate for this project’s UN-loaded Other Direct Costs (ODCs) is $1,000 PER YEAR. But DOT is NOT prescribing any particular ODC dollar-figure(s) for offerors to propose. The Solicitation will probably require that the winning offeror (i.e, the contractor) obtain DOT’s approval of the contractor’s IT Security Plan for this project, within about 30 days after the contract is awarded. IT SHALL BE THE RESPONSIBILITY OF EACH PROSPECTIVE OFFEROR TO CLOSELY AND FREQUENTLY MONITOR THIS FEDBIZOPPS WEBSITE FOR ANY AMENDED SYNOPSES THAT MIGHT HEREAFTER BE PUBLISHED REGARDING THIS PROJECT, AND TO MONITOR FEDBIZOPPS FOR THE FORTHCOMING SOLICITATION FOR THIS PROJECT, AND TO MONITOR FEDBIZOPPS FOR ANY AMENDMENTS TO THE SOLICITATION----AS SUCH PUBLICATIONS ALWAYS CONTAIN CRUCIAL INFORMATION. TELEPHONED, FAXED AND E-MAILED PROPOSALS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED. INSTEAD, EACH OFFEROR MUST SUBMIT ITS PROPOSAL IN HARD COPY FORM.
- Web Link
-
FedBizOpps Complete View
(https://www.fbo.gov/?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=5c415f348ba6e688933713492f44bdbe&tab=core&_cview=1)
- Record
- SN01595420-W 20080619/080617222656-5c415f348ba6e688933713492f44bdbe (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)
| FSG Index | This Issue's Index | Today's FBO Daily Index Page |