CONSTRUCTION OF USGS FACILITIES ON BIG ISLAND OF HAWAII   3

Construction of two USGS facilities on Big Island of Hawaii
The USGS intends to design and construct two new facilities on The Big Island, Hawaii, to replace the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) facilities damaged during the 2018 eruption of Kilauea, and to collocate USGS Pacific Island Ecosystems Research Center (PIERC) with HVO. HVO is currently occupying a variety of scattered and unsuitable spaces after the previous facility near the caldera s rim suffered serious damage, and PIERC s facilities are in disrepair.
HVO consists of approximately 50 staff and volunteers and PIERC consists of approximately 53 staff and volunteers and a variety of space types are required. This includes private and open office spaces, conference rooms, laboratories (scanning electron microscope lab, rock lab, general lab), hazardous materials storage, field and safety gear storage, archives, fabrication space for instrumentation, warehouse, and operations/monitoring center. The two facilities are a main office/laboratory in Hilo and a field station in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park (HAVO). The facility in Hilo will also act as a continuity of operations site during future eruptions.
The main office/laboratory in Hilo is projected to be approximately 47,000 net square feet (NSF) northwest of the intersection of Nowelo St. and Komohana St on University of Hawaii at Hilo (UHH) property.
Due to the loss of the original Observatory at the Kilauea Summit, and to facilitate continued in- situ monitoring and field studies in HAVO, the reestablishment of a permanent HVO field station in the Park is necessary. The field station needs to include open office space for approximately 20 staff on a rotating, non-permanent basis, to allow for rapid deployment of field gear, gas monitoring instrumentation, and staging for eruption response including UAVs. The field station is projected to be approximately 9,000 NSF to the west of Kilauea Military Camp north of the historic ball field.
The scope of this acquisition is to contract with a Construction Manager as General Contractor (CMGC) to provide design phase services beginning with the 65% design submission, and optionally to construct both facilities when design is complete. USGS has contracted with a separate Architect/Engineer (A/E) firm that is responsible for developing complete design and construction documents for the project. The A/E on this project is AHL, formerly Architects Hawaii Ltd., of Honolulu, HI. We are approaching 35% design for the field station and the main office/laboratory is slightly behind due to land use negotiations underway. We are hopeful both facilities can be built simultaneously. The period of performance is expected to be approximately six to eight months for design-phase services and 24-36 months for construction. The estimated magnitude of construction is more than $10M. The Construction Wage Requirements Statute (prevailing wage, formerly Davis-Bacon Act) will apply to the construction portion of this project. The successful contractor will be required to obtain performance and payment bonds before being given the notice to proceed with construction.
We intend to solicit competitive proposals in accordance with the procedures of Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Parts 15 (Contracting by Negotiation) and 36 (Construction and Architect-Engineer Contracts). The solicitation will proceed in two phases. Phase 1 will request only technical qualifications. Later, after 35% design documents are available, phase 2 will invite price proposals. This phasing is being done solely to accommodate the design schedule and allow ample time to evaluate proposals; there will not be a phase 1 down-select. Only one overall best-value tradeoff decision will be made, with selection criteria to be outlined in the forthcoming request for proposals. Tentatively, we plan to release phase 1 in early October 2021 and phase 2 immediately after the 35% design documents are available, which is expected November 2021. Target contract award date is early second quarter FY22.
The contract will have two components: a firm-fixed-price for design-phase services, and a not-to-exceed price for the optional construction phase. The construction option may only be exercised at a firm-fixed-price. There will be a shared savings incentive, such that if the construction option can be exercised below the not-to-exceed price, the parties will share in the savings 50/50, with the contractor s share obligated to the contract as a separate line item payable upon project completion.
The applicable product/service code is Y1AA, Construction of Office Buildings. The applicable NAICS code is 236220, Commercial and Institutional Building Construction, size standard $39.5M. This acquisition is unrestricted.
Prospective contractors do not need to respond to this presolicitation notice. Questions or concerns should be submitted to the Contracting Officer, Jeff Caravelli, jcaravelli@usgs.gov.
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