Active

Contract Opportunity

Procurement Technical Assistance Centers (PTACs) are an official government contracting resource for small businesses. Find your local PTAC (opens in new window) for free government expertise related to contract opportunities.

AMENDMENT 001 ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS SUBMITTED

REF: A.3 SCOPE OF WORK

QUESTION #1: The SOW explicitly includes all labor, materials, supervision, and transportation to provide daily air monitoring outside of containment areas, air and soil monitoring results, clearance samples (wipe and air samples). It does not explicitly include analytical services for lead. Will the VA procure analytical services separately?

Government Response #1: No, the analysis is included as well.

QUESTION #2: Are the 400 days specified as the period of performance business days or calendar days?

Government Response #2: Calendar days

REF: B.1

QUESTION #3: Are Buildings 15, 45, 46, 47 considered four individual LBP containment areas to which the sample count provided applies? Or will the exterior renovations of Buildings 15, 45, 46, 47 be broken down into smaller LBP containment areas to which the sample count provided applies? For example, will the exterior renovation of Building 15 require seven different LBP containment areas, each of which will require 2 per- and 2-post abatement soil samples, 2 area air samples during preparation activities, and air monitoring during abatement operations? If the exterior renovations of Buildings 15, 45, 46, 47 will be broken down into smaller LBP containment areas, please provide the total number of LBP containment areas per building.

Government Response #3: There are only two buildings in which a containment will be erected in the interior to remove some LBP in the basement. From what I understand, those will be one containment for each building (total of 2 containments). All of the exterior work will not require containment but will have plastic around the perimeter to capture any lead chips as a result of scraping loose and flaky LBP. Any abatement of lead based paint on the exterior will be performed with a HEPA vacuum attached to the equipment by the assigned constructor contractor.

QUESTION #4: While the solicitation provides a basis of estimate for air and soil sampling per abatement area, wipe samples are only quantified as as needed . In that the VA is requesting a firm fixed-price offer, please specify the number of wipe samples per containment area estimated by the VA to be required.

Government Response #4: No more than 6 per building.

QUESTION #5: Will LBP abatement at Buildings 15, 45, 46, 47 be executed sequentially or will there be simultaneous abatement operations taking place at more than one building at a time?

Government Response #5: Sequentially

QUESTION #6: Please confirm that the requirement to comply with all applicable OSHA, EPA, and VA Requirements only applies to such requirements that pertain to sampling and excludes requirements that are applicable to LBP abatement.

Government Response #6: Yes, confirmed sampling and monitoring only.


REF: B.2.1.d

QUESTION #7: Please clarify what is intended by Recipient s acknowledgement . To whom is the weekly report to be sent? What is expected by the VA as evidence of Recipient s acknowledgement ?

Government Response #7:Recipient s acknowledgement is any type of record of chain of custody for the previous daily work submissions to ensure samples submitted are not tampered, lost, or mixed up with any other samples. For example, the monitor submits to their certified industrial hygienist for review before submitting to the AIHA lab for analysis. The lab then returns the report to the monitor (CIH) for delivery to the Government s COR. The recipient s acknowledgement for that example would be the monitor s CIH, shipment tracking number of sample (i.e. UPS, FEDEX, etc.), the AIHA lab acknowledgement, and the person who completed the lab analysis. That s it. The report shall be submitted to the COR of the project. In this case, Miriam Trivette, Industrial Hygienist for James H. Quillen VA Medical Center. Evidence of Recipient s acknowledgment can be Emails, signatures, initials on the reports, sample reference numbers, etc.

REF: C.2

QUESTION #8: Period of Performance states in relevant part Work must be completed within 365 days from start of work date. However, A.3 states The Construction Contractor s period of performance is 400 days. Please clarify what the POP is for the monitoring contractor.

Government Response #8: The period of performance for the sampling and monitoring contract will be 365 days.

QUESTION #9: Are the 365 days specified as the period of performance business days or calendar days?

Government Response #9:Calendar days

QUESTION #10: The solicitation states The LBP abatement work is estimated to take 15 business days to complete per building, to wit, there are four buildings this service contract covers. Please clarify that the monitoring contractor is estimated to be onsite no more than 60 days out of the 400-day or 365-day POP.

Government Response #10:That is correct. We estimate that the monitoring portion of this requirement shall not exceed 60 days. However, keep in mind that the buildings will not be completed simultaneously, and each building will be completed (abatement and renovation) before moving to the next building. In other words, there will be a lapse in time for the monitoring and sampling between each building. Once all four buildings monitoring and sampling is complete, this contract will end regardless of any remaining days on the contracted Period of Performance.

QUESTION #11: Will the monitoring contractor be expected to attend any pre-start meetings, site-specific training, or be on-site for any other purpose other than when conducting monitoring activities? If yes, please specify the purpose and estimated number of days required to be on site.

Government Response #11: No.

QUESTION #12: Will the monitoring contractor be expected to prepare and submit any pre-start deliverables, plans, etc.?

Government Response #12: No, the only requirement is submission of certifications, licenses, laboratory accreditation certification prior to start of project.

QUESTION #13: The solicitation states All work in areas involved must be scheduled with the VA Engineering Service representative of the construction project and the facility Industrial Hygienist. Work must be scheduled for proper execution to completion of this contract. Whose responsibility - the abatement contractor or monitoring contractor - is it to schedule with the VA Engineering Service representative of the construction project and the facility Industrial Hygienist? How much lead time is required to schedule work?

Government Response #13:This will be a coordinated effort between the COR of the renovation and abatement project, the prime construction contractor and the COR of the monitoring and sampling (Industrial Hygienist), with each COR and contractor being responsible for work coordination/scheduling for their area of responsibility.

This solicitation is for the service requirement of LBP abatement monitoring services. So, that statement in the question is directed to the monitoring contractor. The assigned COR for this requirement is the primary point-of-contact (POC) for coordination of any information that impacts the monitoring contractor s scheduling process. The monitoring contractor, while dependent on the COR for timely and accurate information, is still responsible to be proactive in communicating with their primary POC/COR regarding information that impacts the monitoring contractor s ability to schedule their service.

Lead time for the first building is dynamic and the remaining three buildings is estimated to be at a minimum of two weeks or 14 calendar days.

NOTE: Recent (5/15/2023) discussion with construction contractor has the original June 1st need start date for the 1st building, which is building #15, looking unrealistic. They have not received the lead-based paint abatement plan from their subcontractor, which still requires (once submitted) review and approval from the VA engineering office before final lockdown of the actual start date of the abatement. A more realistic start date for the monitoring services is anticipated to be between June 15, 2023 and July 1st, 2023. This does not negate the estimated contract starting need date for this monitoring service currently anticipated to be set for June 1st, 2023.

Re: C.3.3 Qualifications of Key Personnel Personnel must be certified Lead inspector/risk assessor in the state of Tennessee.

QUESTION #14: Are there any experience-based equivalencies recognized in lieu of certification by the state of Tennessee?

Government Response #14: No.

Attachments/Links