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FBO DAILY - FEDBIZOPPS ISSUE OF JUNE 19, 2014 FBO #4590
SOLICITATION NOTICE

A -- Update and Improve Long-Term Pavement Program (LTPP) Bind

Notice Date

6/17/2014
 

Notice Type

Presolicitation
 

NAICS

541330 — Engineering 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

DTFH6114R00043
 

Archive Date

7/1/2014
 

Point of Contact

Carolyn J. Wilson, Phone: 2023660867
 

E-Mail Address

carolyn.wilson@dot.gov
(carolyn.wilson@dot.gov)
 

Small Business Set-Aside

N/A
 

Description

This synopsis is issued in accordance with FAR Part 5.203 in response to the mandatory requirement for a 15 day pre-solicitation notification. The purpose of this synopsis is to announce the Federal Highway Administration's intent to issue a solicitation as full and open competition to procure the services of an Offeror for personnel, engineering, and other technical services to deliver and support the Update and Improve Long-Term Pavement Performance (LTPP) Bind pursuant to FAR Part 19.2. As a result of this solicitation, the FHWA intends to award a Firm-Fixed-Price type contract. The anticipated period of performance is 24 months. The solicitation will be issued on or about June 27, 2014. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Office of Infrastructure Research and Development (HRDI-30) oversee the s upport of the Update and Improve LTPPBind. BACKGROUND The Long-Term Pavement Performance (LTPP) program started in 1987 as part of the Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP) and has managed by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) since 1992, the LTPP program studies the performance of existing or in-service pavements. The primary goal of the LTPP program is to understand how and why pavements perform as they do. To accomplish this goal, researchers collect pavement performance data using standard data collection procedures and protocols on a variety of pavement types. The LTPP program monitors and collects pavement performance data on all active sites. The collected data include information on seven modules: Inventory, Maintenance, Monitoring (Deflection, Distress, and Profile), Rehabilitation, Materials Testing, Traffic, and Climatic. This information is stored in a database that can be used by pavement engineers and researchers worldwide to advance the science of pavement engineering. Since 1989, the LTPP database has grown to approximately 7 terabytes of data and includes electronic information collected from 2,509 pavement test sections throughout the United States and Canada. This database is continuously being developed as more data are collected and processed. Based on an analysis of the LTPP data and on the original binder selection software known as SHRPBind, LTPPBind is a Microsoft® Windows®-based program that helps highway agencies select the most suitable and cost-effective SuperPave® asphalt binder Performance Grade (PG) for a particular site. LTPPBind 3.1 software (available at www.InfoPave.com ) features a database of high and low air temperatures (minimum, mean, maximum, standard deviation, and number of years) for nearly 8,000 North American weather stations, enabling users to select the asphalt binder PG based on temperature conditions at the site, desired level of risk, and different levels of traffic loading and speed. However, LTPPBind 3.1 is currently not compatible with 64-bit Microsoft® Windows® 7 or later operating systems for use on personal computers. LTPPBind 3.1 needs to be updated and improved utilizing current climatic data which includes emerging climate change phenomenon and events occurring within the last decade to more accurately perform asphalt pavement materials selection and pavement performance characterization. Current asphalt binder and asphalt pavement materials evaluation, selection, testing, and design rely on a variety of available climatic data to predict and ensure long term performance. The climatic data is important because it is used to determine inputs for the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Pavement ME structural design software utilizing mechanistic-empirical design models. The inputs rely on climatic data to determine project specific pavement temperatures based on geographical location, elevation, recorded ambient temperatures, etc. In particular, climatic data is used within the LTPPBind software and is currently specified within the AASHTO standards in order to determine and select: 1) pavement temperatures for high and low temperature performance graded binder selection per AASHTO standards M 320-10 Performance-Graded Asphalt Binder and M 323-13 Superpave Volumetric Mix Design 2) pavement temperatures for high and low temperature performance graded binder selection per AASHTO standard MP 19-10 Performance-Graded Asphalt Binder Using Multiple Stress Creep Recovery Test 3) testing temperature for evaluating the elastic response, stress dependency, and percent recovery of asphalt binders per AASHTO standard TP 70-13 Multiple Stress Creep Recovery Test of Asphalt Binder Using a Dynamic Shear Rheometer 4) testing temperatures to evaluate rutting resistance for HMA and WMA mixtures by flow number testing per AASHTO standards R 35-12 on Superpave Volumetric Design and proposed appendix to TP 79-12 Determining the Dynamic Modulus and Flow Number for Hot Mix Asphalt Using the Asphalt Mixture Performance Tester 5) predicting temperatures within asphalt bound layers per AASHTO T 317-04 Prediction of Asphalt-Bound Pavement Layer Temperatures 6) testing temperatures to determine the mixture permanent shear strain and stiffness per AASHTO standard T 320-07 Determining the Permanent Shear Strain and Stiffness of Asphalt Mixtures Using the Superpave Shear Tester The Multiple Stress Creep Recovery (MSCR) test is run at the local climate high temperature value. Based on the performance of the binder at that temperature, it is categorized into either one of Standard S grade, Heavy H grade, Very Heavy V grade, and Extreme E grade that represent increasing levels of traffic (e.g. using a grade-bumped PG76-22 for mid-Atlantic might be replaced by using a PG64V-22). If the MSCR test is used by the agency, it replaces the need for temperature-based grade bumping. Agencies should not do both (e.g. using a PG76V-22 when the local climate calls for a PG64S-22). LTPPBind needs to provide clear indicators that qualify when the traffic-based bumping chart should be used and prompts that temperature-based grade bumping is eliminated by the use of MSCR. The LTPPBind software climatic data does not sufficiently characterize pavement temperatures for all project locations within the United States and Canada. For some geographic locations, the climatic data is over 10 to 20 years old or there is missing climatic data for certain timespans. Climate data must match the time period for measured performance and use of incorrect historic climate data at the incorrect time period will produce errors in pavement temperature selection. According to National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report 629, a 0.5°C change in pavement mixture temperature can change a mixture's flow number by 7.5%. Therefore, the temperature selection utilizing the climatic data within LTPPBind will have a significant impact on the results used to determine rutting resistance and performance. The LTPPBind software does not currently provide for adjustments in localized elevation differences due to mountainous terrain, cloud cover, shadow, solar radiation, heat convection, wind speed, pavement surface radiation properties, pavement materials thermal diffusion properties, and other climatic data commonly collected and available today. FHWA contract DTFH61-11-C-00030 "Evaluation of Long-Term Pavement Performance (LTPP) Climatic Data for Use in Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide (MEPDG) Calibration and Other Pavement Analysis" identified a source of climate data that was previously unknown to civil engineers, and holds the promise to advance the use of climate data in pavement infrastructure engineering applications. The Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA) developed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is a global climate reanalysis product that combines computed model fields with ground-, ocean-, atmospheric-, and satellite-based observations to provide hourly climate data on an approximately 50km by 50km horizontal spatial grid. MERRA time series are available from 1979 to the present at hourly temporal resolution. Evaluations of the MERRA data suggest that it is as good as, and in many ways superior to, weather data time series from conventional surface-based operating weather stations (OWS). Incorporating recent, missing, and additional climatic data collected since the development and release of LTPPBind and improving the utilization of Version 3.1 will impact pavement materials selection and design resulting in significant pavement performance cost savings. OBJECTIVE The primary objective of this effort is to develop, enhance, and deliver a new version of LTPPBind tool to maximize user understanding of pavement engineering for selecting the most suitable and cost-effective asphalt binder Performance Grade for a particular site by: Updating the climatic data linked to the LTPPBind software Improving the utilization of Version 3.1 Providing compatibility with 64-bit Microsoft® Windows® 8 or later computer operating systems Deployment through LTPP InfoPave TM The solicitation will be released electronically via this Government Point of Entry (GPE) otherwise known as Federal Business Opportunities or www.fbo.gov. As such, no written, telephonic or other type of request for an advance copy of the solicitation will be entertained at this time. Potential Offerors are encouraged to register on www.fbo.gov to receive any further information in reference to the subject action inclusive of any announcements, and/or amendments to the solicitation after its release. Offerors must have an approved accounting system to be eligible for award of a Firm-Fixed-Price type contract. This requirement is issued as full and open competition. Any questions regarding this synopsis should be directed to Carolyn Wilson, Contract Specialist, via email at Carolyn.Wilson@dot.gov.
 

Web Link

FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/spg/DOT/FHWA/OAM/DTFH6114R00043/listing.html)
 

Place of Performance

Address: FHWA - TFHRC, 6300 Georgetown Pike, McLean, VA 22101-2296, McLean, Virginia, 22101-2296, United States

Zip Code: 22101-2296
 

Record

SN03397760-W 20140619/140617235600-37bcaf7fcb1dc3e3e5f1bbd5f3b5e7d9 (fbodaily.com)
 

Source

FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)

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