1.0 Summary The U.S. Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT), John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (Volpe Center), Cambridge, MA, is conducting market research to identify businesses for services to provide benefit cost analysis of highway investments affecting agriculture, taking into account network effects. This Sources Sought Notice does not constitute a solicitation and is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government. The Government will not pay for any effort expended in responding to this notice. 2.0 Background The U.S. Department of Transportation, Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (Volpe Center) in support of the U.S. Department of Agriculture is conducting an in-depth study of agricultural highway freight to identify issues and opportunities and support economic competitiveness. The United States Department of Agriculture is partnering with the USDOT to conduct an in-depth study of agricultural highway freight to identify issues and opportunities and support economic competitiveness. The focus is on highway infrastructure improvements, not potential regulatory changes. The goals are to better understand the economic impacts of highway freight conditions for agriculture. The project will analyze agricultural freight flow current conditions, challenges, and opportunities, including infrastructure redundancy, and communicate investment gaps and options for improvement. The analysis will feed into a strategic plan that will provide a national framework for accounting for the needs of agriculture in highway decision making. Of particular interest in the analysis is the return on investment of a variety of highway improvements addressing bottlenecks and intermodal connections, from the perspective of the national network. The Highway Economic Requirements System (HERS) model will be used to assess investment options addressing particular highway segments, but it does not account for the impacts of those investments on performance of the network as a whole. The Volpe Center is seeking modeling support for modeling of these network effects. 3.0 Description Contractors must have the level of expertise in economic analysis and be able to provide, tailor or assist in developing a model to estimate benefits and costs from a network perspective for a variety of investment scenarios provided by the Government. The Volpe Center requires the results of the analyses to be completed no later than May 29, 2020. Contractors shall be able to support the Government in the following tasks: Provide, tailor or assist in developing a model to enable benefit cost analysis of highway improvements, incorporating network effects. The model should analyze benefits overall and specific to agriculture. These highway improvements would address a variety of physical and operational improvements included in HERS. Document the model to enable peer review to ensure credibility. Analyze scenarios, including ranking projects by net benefits. These scenarios will be developed based on projects included in State Freight Plans and different investment levels. The contractor will provide assistance in scenario development based on expertise in prior analysis of highway investments. Document the results of the scenario analyses. SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS Interested Contractors may submit a written Statement of Capabilities of sufficient detail demonstrating their understanding, technical capabilities, knowledge and expertise of the Tasks to be performed and listed above. Responses shall include experience and level of expertise in economic analysis, ability to meet Government schedule for the described tasks and information on the model to be provided, tailored or the ability to assist in the development of a model. Each response shall also reference the Sources Sought title, Contractor's name and the following Contractor information: 1) Point of Contact (along with telephone and email address); 2) DUNS Number and CAGE Code; 3) Contractor Address; and 4) NAICS code as registered in the System for Award Management (if applicable). Part of the purpose of this notice is to determine the viability of set aside to a specific socio-economic category. Contractors shall identify the NAICS code for the services being offered as well as their size status under said NAICS. This information will be used to determine the viability of a set aside for this requirement. Contractors shall identify any General Services Administration (GSA) Multiple Award Schedules (MAS) that may carry the desired services. Contractors shall identify NAICS code size standard and socioeconomic status for verification. Interested small businesses shall indicate their socio-economic small business size status (Total Small Business, 8(a) business development, historically underutilized business zone, service disabled veteran owned, small disadvantaged, or woman-owned) in the appropriate North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code. In accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part 19, small business concerns must ensure that their status certifications are up to date. Interested parties must respond to this source sought announcement in writing by January 9, 2019 at 12:00 pm Eastern Time. Telephone requests will not be honored. All responses must be submitted via e-mail to Christine Guy at
[email protected]. Electronic attachments to the e-mail should be submitted in Microsoft Office 2007 (or later) productivity application formats, or any format that can be imported by Microsoft Office. INFORMATION AVAILABILITY THIS NOTICE IS NOT A REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL AND NO FORMAL SOLICIATION EXISTS AT THIS TIME. This notice is for information and planning purposes only, and is a market research tool to determine the availability and adequacy of potential business sources prior to determining the method of acquisition and possible issuance of a Request for Proposal. The notice does not constitute a solicitation for bids, quotations, and proposals, and is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government. The information provided herein is subject to change and in no way binds the Government to solicit for or award a competitive contract. The Government is not obligated to and will not pay for any information received from potential sources as a result of response to this Sources Sought notice. The Government will not pay for any materials provided in response to this synopsis and submittals will not be returned to the sender. Submissions must be disclosable to the public or the submitter should provide a summary statement that can be disclosed to the public with fuller supporting information that is clearly marked as restricted. The Government will use customary means to safeguard proprietary information, but only when such information is (1) clearly marked as proprietary; (2) is, in fact, information that could not have been obtained from another party or source; and (3) is otherwise deserving of such treatment under standards and processes described in the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and Executive Order 12600.