19 -- 19-DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION OF A MULTI-PURPOSE ICEBREAKER FOR THE GREAT LAKES 17. The Coast Guard is pleased to announce plans to construct a new multi-purpose icebreaking vessel. The multi-purpose vessel will provide heavy icebreaking services and maintain floating aids-to-navigation on the Great Lakes. In addition, the vessel will have secondary mission responsibility for search and rescue, marine environmental response, and maritime law enforcement. The Coast Guard strategy to procure this vessel is a two-phase acquisition. Phase One will be a parallel design competition with up to three contracts awarded. Phase Two will down select to a single contractor to complete the detail design and construct the vessel. Award for Phase One is expected in the third or fourth quarter of fiscal year 2000. The Coast Guard will release a Request for Comment and hold a Pre-Solicitation Conference prior to release of a Request for Proposals (RFP). These events will be scheduled during the first or second quarter of fiscal year 2000. A web site is being developed to provide timely information and news specific to the Great Lakes Icebreaking Capability acquisition project. Commerce Business Daily (CBD) announcements will be released to provide the dates of the Pre-Solicitation Conference and web site implementation.***** WEB: Visit this URL for the latest information about this, http://www.eps.gov/cgi-bin/WebObjects/EPS?ACode=S&;ProjID=Reference-Num ber-Reference-Number-G-AGL&LocID=14. E-MAIL: Carl McGill, cmcgill@comdt.uscg.mil. Posted 12/14/99 (D-SN408363).

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