Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan, Broward County Water Preserve Areas, Contract 2, C-11 Impoundment and Mitigation Area A, Broward County, Florida

Sources Sought Synopsis - W912EP25Z0004

Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan, Broward County Water Preserve Areas, Contract 2, C-11 Impoundment and Mitigation Area A, Broward County, Florida

This announcement constitutes a Source Sought Synopsis.  This announcement seeks information from industry and will only be used for preliminary planning purposes.  THIS IS NOT A SOLICITATION FOR PROPOSALS AND NO CONTRACT SHALL BE AWARDED FROM THIS SYNOPSIS.  Respondents will not be notified of the results of the evaluation. 

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Jacksonville District is issuing this sources sought synopsis as a means of conducting market research to gauge the interest, capabilities and qualifications of various members of the Construction Community, to include Small Businesses, as the Government must ensure there is adequate competition amongst the potential pool of responsible contractors. This requirement is for the potential fiscal year (FY) 2025 award of the construction of the C-11 Impoundment and Mitigation Area A as part of the Broward County Water Preserve Areas (BCWPA), one of the elements of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP).

There is no solicitation at this time. This request for capability information does not constitute a request for proposals and submission of any information in response to this market survey is purely voluntary. The proposed project will be a Firm Fixed Price (FFP) contract. The Jacksonville District anticipates the issuance of a Request for Proposal (RFP). No reimbursement will be made for any costs associated with providing information in response to this Sources Sought or any follow-up information requested.

Project Description:

The Broward County Water Preserve Areas (BCWPA), Contract 2 project consists of a portion of the overall C-11 Impoundment project. Contract 2 consists of construction of dam and levee embankment, a mitigation area, water control structures, environmentally sensitive area (ESA) systems, lake backfill, drainage conveyance, ancillary features, and associated clearing, grubbing, planting, borrow, and material processing.

Contract 2 is the second of three construction phases (combined with Contract 2.1 and future Contract 3) to complete the overall C-11 Impoundment component of the BCWPA project. The overall completed C-11 Impoundment will be an above-ground earthen reservoir targeted to have a total storage of 4,600 acre-feet with an effective interior area of approximately 1,053 acres and a normal pool water storage depth of approximately 4.7 ft.

The Contract 2 dam embankment (D-511) will have an approximate height of 15ft (crest elevation of 18.8 ft NAVD88). The Contract 2 portion of D-511 embankment will include roughly 4,800 ft of slurry wall along the southern alignments between stations 111+00 to 146+00 (east) and stations 204+00 to 218+00 (west). The slurry wall will be 41 ft tall (EL 6.0 ft NAVD88 to EL -35.0 ft NAVD) with a typical width of 2.5 ft.

The proposed Mitigation Area ‘A’, is located north of the impoundment. It will 113 acres of wetland marsh. Water levels within the mitigation area will fluctuate approximately 1.0 ft above average ground elevation (5.3 ft NAVD88). The levees surrounding the mitigation area will have an approximate height of 3 ft (crest elevation of 7.3 ft NAVD88).

Contract 2 includes 12 total Water Control Structures:

• Gated Culverts S-506A, S-508B, S-508D, and S-511
• Ungated Culverts S-500A, S-505E, S-506B, S-508A, and S-509
• Fixed, Broad-crested Weirs S-505B, S-505C, and S-505F

There are two environmentally sensitive areas (ESAs) which are to be protected during construction and ultimately excluded from the project by means of embankment alignment. The ESAs will be protected from disturbance during construction and will be avoided by completed project features.

Contact 2 includes a requirement to backfill the existing Central Lake and an existing borrow area. These features are existing quarry pits estimated to be up to 55 feet deep and filled with water. Backfill of the Central Lake and Borrow Area will primarily consist of onsite muck material. However, the Contractor will be provided approximately 10,800 cubic yards of stockpiled limerock aggregate, located adjacent to SW 26th Street and the proposed construction staging area, which is approved to be placed in Central Lake.

Contract 2 will require continuous stormwater management and conveyance of an approximate two square-mile drainage area north of the project site, which flows southward through the project site, plus any stormwater generated within the Contract 2 limits for the duration of the contract. Since stormwater flows will ultimately need to pass south through the future Contract 3 project limits for discharge into the C-11 Canal, stormwater management will include the following control requirements:

• Stormwater system will convey a 100-year storm to the existing A/5 Canal outfall at the C-11 Canal.
• Contractor will construct a temporary shallow drainage diversion ditch from the eastern C-511 Canal to the existing A/5 canal. The diversion ditch will be located along the boundary between the Contract 2 and Contract 3, in a zone of temporary construction limit for future resumption by others.
• Contractor must not construct S-505F broad-crested weir until the eastern section of C-511 and the temporary diversion ditch to the existing A/5 canal are complete.

Other project features and activities include clearing, grubbing, planting, borrow, material processing, boat ramps, soil cement embankment armoring, emergency stockpiles, instrumentation and monitoring stations, wetland preservation/protection, erosion control, and debris disposal.

The Estimated Magnitude of construction is over $500,000,000.00.

The estimated period of performance for the contract is 2,227 calendar days after receipt of notice to proceed excluding final establishment of grass after seeding. The anticipated date of advertisement is on or around May 1, 2025.

The applicable North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code assigned to this procurement is 237990, Other Heavy and Civil Engineering Construction. The Small Business Size Standard for this project is $45 million.

Firm’s response to this Sources Sought shall be limited to 10 pages and shall include the following information:

1.  Firm’s name, address, point of contact, phone number, website, and email address.

2.  Firm’s interest in submitting a proposal on the solicitation when advertised.

3.  Firm’s capability to perform a contract of this magnitude and complexity (include firm’s capability to execute comparable work performed within the past 10 years from the date of this Sources Sought.  Firm should provide at least two examples which, at a minimum, include the following:

1. Brief description of the project
2. Customer name
3. Timeliness of performance
4. Customer satisfaction
5. Dollar value of the project

Emphasis should be on projects that included (1) construction of earthen embankments (2) construction of soil cement, (3) construction of mass concrete structures (4) management of surface and groundwater in areas with an elevated groundwater table, and (5) cutoff (slurry) wall construction.

If your firm is a Small Business, be sure you understand the performance of work requirements for your specific socioeconomic category. i.e. SB, 8(a), SDVOSB, WOSB, or HUBZone. 

4.  Firm shall identify their Small Business classification and Small Business Size.

1. Small Business,
2. Small Disadvantage Business
3. 8(a) Small Business
4. SDVOSB
5. WOSB
6. HUBzone

5. If significant subcontracting or teaming is anticipated in order to deliver technical capability, firms should address the structure of such arrangements to include Joint Venture information, if applicable – existing and potential.

6.  Firm’s Bonding Capability (construction bonding level per contract and aggregate construction bonding level, both expressed in dollars) via letter from bonding company.

7. Firm’s responses to the following technical questions:    

1. Has your firm constructed any impoundments and/or earthen embankments for water storage? Have any of these projects been located in central or south Florida?
2. Has your firm constructed any reinforced concrete water control structures? Have any of these projects been located in central or south Florida?
3. How would your firm plan to protect exposed embankment from erosion or other damage as construction progresses?
4. How will your firm protect filter material from cross contamination with other embankment material during placement?
5. What capabilities does your firm have for crushing/processing soil/limestone material?
6. How would your firm intend to crush/process and stockpile fill material?  Centralized processing plant(s), mobile processing, other?
7. Would your firm have any concerns crushing/processing soil/aggregate from on-site for generating soil cement?
8. Would your firm anticipate problems with production or placement of soil cement using crushed/processed material?
9. How would your firm manage site drainage to facilitate foundation preparation and embankment construction during the wet season?
10. Does your firm believe the period of performance of 2,227 calendar days is reasonable?
11. Does your firm anticipate supply chain or Buy American issues?
12. How will your firm adequately supply labor for the project?
13. Does your firm have any concerns working adjacent to other construction contractors?  Understanding that limits of construction do overlap and that construction of other features is and will be ongoing during execution of this contract, how will your firm minimize or mitigate conflicts?
14. Is there any reason or additional concern that may constrain your firm’s interest to compete for this construction contract?

8.  Project Labor Agreement (PLA) - On 4 February 2022, an Executive Order (EO) was issued requiring large construction projects valued at $35 million or larger to utilize PLAs. The EO mandates that all contractors and subcontractors be a party to a labor agreement with one or more labor organizations. Due to the magnitude of this project, the EO is applicable to this acquisition. Although the EO has not yet been incorporated into the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), it is likely that by the time this requirement is solicited, PLAs will be required.  As such, this Sources Sought seeks to determine the potential impacts of PLAs on this project. 

Please provide feedback regarding how the requirement for a PLA will impact your interest in submitting a proposal in response to the planned solicitation. 

PLA Executive Order for reference:

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2022/02/04/executive-order-on-use-of-project-labor-agreements-for-federal-construction-projects/

NOTES:

DO NOT SUBMIT PROPRIETARY AND/OR BUSINESS CONFIDENTIAL DATA.

Submission Instructions: Interested parties who consider themselves qualified to perform the above-listed project are invited to submit a response to this Sources Sought  by no later than November 15, 2024 at 2:00PM, EST. All responses under this Sources Sought shall be sent via email to Ligaya Lowe at ligaya.m.lowe@usace.army.mil, and Manuela Voicu at manuela.d.voicu@usace.army.mil.

All responses to this Sources Sought will be evaluated and used in determining acquisition strategy. Prior Government contract work is not required for submitting a response under this Sources Sought.

You must be registered with the System for Award Management (SAM) in order to receive a Government contract award. To register, go to www.sam.gov. For additional information visit the website for the Federal Service Desk (www.FSD.gov) which supports SAM or contact them at 866-606-8220 for assistance.