U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Railroad Administration, Office of Acquisition and Grants Services (RAD-30), 400 7th Street, S.W., Room 8222, Washington, D.C. 20590

A -- OPERATION, MAINTENANCE, INSTRUMENTATION & ANALYSIS SUPPORT FOR RAILROAD SAFETY RESEARCH SOL DTFR53-96-R-00001 DUE 102895 POC Jill B. Shohet, Contract Specialist, 202-366-0652/Robert L. Carpenter, Contracting Officer, 202-366-0564 The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) intends to negotiate a 3-year contract with two additional option years, for the Operation, Maintenance, Instrumentation & Analysis Support for Railroad Safety Research. The contractor will provide engineering and operations services to design, fabricate, operate, maintain, and analyze the results from specialized instrumentation, including Government-furnished equipment such as the mobile Gage Restraint Measurement System Car (T-6), Ride Quality Measurement System, Cross Level Evaluator, Instrumented Wheel Systems and specialized data collection systems. Under task orders issued against this contract, the contractor will be responsible for providing services in one or more of the following areas: (1) design and fabrication of instrumentation; (2) design, acquisition, and programming of data acquisition systems; (3) test planning and operations; (4) coordination of field activities; (5) engineering analysis and reporting; (6) equipment maintenance and storage of Government-furnished property/equipment; (7) data processing and software maintenance; and (8) management and administration. The Government-furnished property includes approximately 600 items of specialized test equipment and instrumentation which are used on an as-needed basis and is currently stored in approximately 16,500 cubic feet of space. Specific work assignments will be identified through the issuance of task orders, which are within the contract's general work scope. One or more tasks may be issued over an ordering period of 3 years, with two 1-year option periods. Interested sources should submit their request for the solicitation document, which may be sent via facsimile transmission to FAX 202/366-3055, Attn: J. Shohet, RFP No. DTFR53-96-R-00001 or e-mail to jshohet@intergate.dot.gov. It is anticipated that the solicitation document will be issued by October 28, 1995. This is an unrestricted competitive procurement. All responsible sources may sbmit a proposal, which shall be considered by the Agency. Although this procurement is not a special set-aside, THE FOLLOWING NOTICE IS FOR MINORITY, WOMEN-OWNED AND DISADVANTAGED BUSINESS INTERPRISES: The Department of Transportation (DOT), Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization (OSDBU) has a program to assist minority, women-owned and disadvantaged business enterprises to acquire short-term working capital assistance for transportation-related contracts. Loans are available under the DOT Short-Term Lending Program (STLP) at prime interest rates to provide accounts receivable financing. The maximum line of credit is $500,000. For further information and applicable forms concerning the STLP, call the OSDBU at (800) 532-1169. For information concerning the acquisition, contact the contracting official listed above. (0286)

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