AMENDMENT 01 - 03/22/2024

Solicitation is amended to post the site visit sign in sheets and responses to all requests for information (RFIs) received by the RFI deadline. All other terms and conditions remain unchanged.

END OF AMENDMENT 01

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The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Agricultural Research Service (ARS) has a requirement to replace the seed cold storage rooms at the Soybean/Maize Germplasm, Pathology, and Genetics Research Unit in Urbana, Illinois.

Solicitation 12505B24R0004 is issued as a Request for Proposals (RFP). The solicitation document, with the incorporated clauses and provisions, is issued in accordance with the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Parts 15 and 36 and will be incorporated in the awarded firm-fixed price order. Interested vendors should reference the solicitation documents for all terms and conditions. All interested parties are responsible for monitoring this website to ensure they have the most current information (i.e. Amendments) for the solicitation. No paper solicitation will be available.

Notice of Set-Aside for Small Business Concerns: This requirement is a Total Small Business Set Aside.

The associated NAICS Code is 238990, All Other Specialty Trade Contractors. The small business size standard is $19.0 million.

Magnitude of Construction is between $250,000 and $500,000.

Period of performance is 150 days after receipt of the Notice to Proceed.

Bonds: Bid, Payment, and Performance Bonds are required.

Site Visit: Organized site visits are scheduled for March 13, 2024 at 1:00 PM Central Daylight Time (CDT) and March 14, 2024 at 9:00 AM CDT. The site visit will be held at the project location. The same information will be provided at both site visits, so offerors only need to attend one. In order to attend the site visit, you MUST pre-register by 3:00 PM CDT on March 12, 2024. Pre-register by emailing josh.dobereiner@usda.gov with your company name, the name(s) of the representatives who will attend, and which site visit you are registering for. An email response will be sent confirming your registration.

The site visit will be held for the purpose of providing contractors with the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the site which may be helpful in the preparation of offers. Attendance at this site visit is not mandatory for offer submission; however, failure to visit the site will not relieve or mitigate the successful contractor's responsibility and obligation to fully comply with the terms, conditions and specifications contained and/or referenced in this document.

All questions regarding this solicitation must be submitted in writing to the Contracting Officer, Josh Dobereiner, via email to josh.dobereiner@usda.gov. Questions must be submitted no later than 4:00 PM CDT on March 21, 2024. Answers to all questions received by that time will be posted as an amendment to the solicitation. No questions will be answered after this date unless determined to be in the best interest of the Government as deemed by the Contracting Officer. Telephone requests for information will not be accepted or returned.

Interested offerors must be registered in the System for Award Management (SAM). To register, go to www.sam.gov. Instructions for registering are on the web page (there is no registration fee).

The solicitation and associated information will be available only from the Contract Opportunities page at sam.gov.

This solicitation is NOT an invitation for bids and there will be NO formal public bid opening. All inquiries must be in writing via email to the persons specified in this solicitation. All answers will be provided in writing via posting to the web.

DISCLAIMER: The official contract documents are located on the government webpage and the Government is not liable for information furnished by any other source. Amendments, if/when issued, will be posted to Contracting Opportunities for electronic downloading. This will normally be the only method of distributing amendments prior to closing; therefore, it is the offeror’s responsibility to check the website periodically for any amendments to this solicitation. Websites are occasionally inaccessible due to various reasons. The Government is not responsible for any loss of internet connectivity or for an offeror’s inability to access the documents posted on the referenced web pages. The Government will not issue paper copies.

Biobased Products: This procurement requires the use of Biobased products to the extent that such products are reasonably available, meet agency or relevant industry performance standards, and are reasonably priced. The products should first be acquired from the USDA designated product categories. All supplies and materials shall be of a type and quantity that conform to applicable Federal specifications and standards, and to the extent feasible and reasonable, include the exclusive use of biobased and recycled products. Please visit www.biopreferred.gov for more information on the USDA Biobased Program and to reference the catalog of mandatory biobased products.

Information concerning the REE policies and procedures regarding the definitization of equitable adjustments for change orders under construction contracts and the time required for definitization of those actions per 15 U.S.C. 644 is available at https://www.ars.usda.gov/afm/apd/acquisitions/.