ARCHITECTURAL-ENGINEERING (A-E) SERVICES FOR HAZARDOUS, TOXIC, AND RADIOACTIVE WASTE (HTRW) SERVICES FOR VARIOUS LOCATIONS WITHIN THE U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS (USACE) NEW ENGLAND DISTRICT (NAE) MISSION BOUNDARIES (ME, NH, VT, MA, CT, AND RI) AND OTHER

This is a Sources Sought announcement to determine the interest, availability, and capability of potential Architect-Engineer (A-E) contractors for Hazardous, Toxic, and Radioactive Waste (HTRW) Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) Architect/Engineer (A-E) Contract for 8(a), Historically Underutilized Business Zone (HUBZone), Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned, Women-Owned, Small Business (SB) and Large Business concerns. This is intended to solicit feedback from all of industry on the proposed approach and get responses to questions as described below. This is for informational purposes only. THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS, QUOTATIONS, OR BIDS. The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for this procurement is 541330 (size standard $25,500,000). The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) New England District (NAE) intends to issue the synopsis in fall 2026, and awards are planned for summer 2027.

All A-E contracts are now defined as Multiple Award Task Order Contracts (MATOCs), which consist of a pool of a minimum of three (3) A-E firms issued from a single solicitation. The proposal for the HTRW IDIQ A-E Contract is to award to a pool of firms that will consist of a mix of large and small businesses. Capacity of the contract is shared among the pool of the A-E firms awarded contracts under the MATOC. In accordance with Revolutionary Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Overhaul (RFO) 19.104-1, competition within the pool for a project-specific order may be restricted to a combination of three or more 8(a), HUBZone, Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned, Women-Owned, and SB concerns depending on the complexity, dollar value, and specialized experience/technical competence needed to successfully perform the work identified. Requirements may also be compared to a firm’s current workload and capacity, professional qualifications, team approach, past performance, and knowledge of the locality. Upon identifying which pool of firms a project-specific order is to be targeted (e.g., all SB contractors or all contractors), the task order will be competed amongst the firms and a preferred firm will be selected in accordance with USACE Alert 21-013, Updated Procedures for the Selection of Task Orders on Architect-Engineer Indefinite Delivery Contracts, dated March 9, 2023. The solicitation for these MATOCs will be in accordance with the Selection of Architects and Engineers statute, formerly known as the Brooks Act, as implemented in RFO 36.102.

Contracts are anticipated to be awarded in the summer of 2027 for a period not to exceed five (5) years. The intent is to award up to six (6) contracts, a minimum of three (3) SB contracts, and up to three (3) unrestricted contracts, with a total contract value up to $49,000,000. The location of the work to be performed under this contract shall be primarily in the six (6) New England states (ME, NH, VT, MA, CT, and RI), but will also include all other states and districts covered by USACE North Atlantic Division’s (NAD’s) mission areas (NY, PA, NJ, DE, MD, VA, WV, and DC). Small business firms’ work to be performed under this contract shall be primarily in the six (6) New England States but could include areas within NAD’s mission area.

Responses to this Sources Sought announcement will be used by the Government to make appropriate acquisition decisions. After reviewing the responses to this announcement, and if the Government still plans to proceed with the acquisition, a solicitation announcement will be published on the SAM.gov website for the respective project. NO SOLICITATION/SYNOPSIS IS CURRENTLY AVAILABLE. All interested offerors will have the opportunity to respond to the solicitation announcement at a later time.

Scope Information:

The work may involve performing Site Inspections, Remedial Investigations, Feasibility Studies, Proposed Plans, Records of Decision, Engineering Evaluation and Cost Analysis, Remedial Designs, Removal Designs, Removal Actions, Interim Removal Actions, and/or Remedial Actions at HTRW sites that are being addressed through the U.S Environmental Protection Agency’s (USEPA’s) Superfund Program, the Department of Defense’s (DoD’s) Base Realignment and Closure Program (BRAC) and Defense Environmental Restoration Program (DERP) Formerly Used Defense Sites (FUDS) Program, and other Interagency Support Customers. HTRW work performed for USACE must generally comply with the DERP statute [10 United States Code (USC) 2700 et seq.], the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) 42 USC 9601 et seq., Executive Orders (EOs) 12580 and 13016, the National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan (NCP), and all applicable DoD and Army policies. To assess an interested firm’s capability to perform this contract adequately, both large and small firms interested should submit a brief synopsis of the firm describing its size, small business status, personnel makeup, experience, and expertise. In addition, the submittal should indicate what registered personnel the firm either has on staff or plans to provide through a consultant.

Products shall typically be produced to USACE guidelines and specific formats set forth under the base contract and/or by individual task order. The firm shall be required to provide design drawings in Autodesk Computer-Aided Design and Drafting (CADD) software (latest version); use Corps computer-based specification software for the development of Specifications (SPECSINTACT); use the latest version of Micro Computer Aided Cost Estimating System (MII) for the development of construction cost estimates; use Primavera P6 for developing detailed construction schedules and use MS Project for more basic investigation, design, and constructions schedules; and utilize ProjNet (DrChecks) (https://wwwprojnet.org) for comment resolution of design review submittals.

Responses:

Interested firms, large and small, should submit a capabilities package to include primary area(s) of contractor’s expertise, resumes of key personnel, and examples of projects illustrating the requirements stated above. The package must identify the nature of work performed by the firm, percentage of overall work self-performed by the firm, and features of work performed by team subcontractors. This response should include, at a minimum, the following:

1) Firm’s name, address, point-of-contact, phone number, email address, Commercial and Government Entity (CAGE) and Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) number.

2) Business classification [e.g., 8(a), HUBzone, woman-owned small business (WOSB), veteran-owned small business (VOSB), Service-disabled veteran-owned small business (SDVOSB), SB or none of these].

3) Name of any subcontractors that would be proposed to team with the prime firm and their expected role.

4) Size of firm and those firms on the team.

5) Information on the general experience and capabilities of your firm and team.

6) Specific documentation of your firm’s experience and capabilities related to:

1. Implementing and executing HTRW projects in all phases of the CERCLA process,
2. Soil and sediment investigation, including support of dredging projects,
3. Geological, geotechnical, and geophysical investigations,
4. Groundwater, surface water, and porewater investigations,
5. Vapor intrusion investigation and mitigation techniques,
6. Environmental chemistry data collection, analysis, management and interpretation [offerors are required to provide analytical chemistry testing capability that is accredited by the DoD Environmental Lab Accreditation Program (ELAP); this may include data upload and management within the FUDS Chemistry Database (FUDSChem) or Air Force Environmental Restoration Program Information Management System (ERPIMS),
7. Experience preparing Quality Assurance Project Plans (QAPPs) in accordance with the Uniform Federal Policy (UFP) as defined in the NCP 40 CFR § 300.415, 40 CFR § 300.425, and 40 CFR § 300.430, developing Conceptual Site Models (CSMs), and establishing Data Quality Objectives (DQOs),  
8. Toxicology and human health and ecological risk assessments,
9. Environmental investigation and cleanup within local, state, and Federal regulatory requirements, including interaction with regulatory agencies,
10. Evaluation and design of remediation strategies,
11. Optimization or operation and maintenance of HTRW remedial actions,
12. Groundwater modeling (to include contaminant fate and transport assessment and understanding of natural attenuation processes),
13.  Geographic Information System (GIS) capabilities, including GIS submissions in ArcGIS shapefile or Geodatabase format,
14. Community outreach and risk communication, including development of Community Relations Plans, support to Restoration Advisory Boards, and support of Technical Review Committees,
15. Preparing design deliverables in either MicroStation or AutoCAD format. Note: the Government will only accept these formats. All delivered CAD files shall be in compliance with the current version of the A/E/C CAD Standard,
16. Preparing specifications for construction contracts using a personal computer-based software package. All specifications for USACE contracts will be prepared using Unified Federal Guide Specifications and SPECSINTACT,
17. Preparing work and construction cost estimates with MII or Remedial Action Cost Estimation Reporting system (RACER) and Life Cycle Cost Analysis methodology.

As supporting documentation, interested firms should submit project overviews of up to five (5) projects representative of the capabilities listed immediately above that were studied/designed within the past seven (7) years. The project overviews shall include a synopsis of the project, including project name, client, photos, month/year the firm’s investigation/design work started and completed; total contract value of the firm’s work specifically; physical size of the investigation area/designed facility; construction cost; and customer point-of-contact. NOTE - interested firms should provide information most relevant to the work performed by the firm. To the extent possible, projects included should be representative of at least one of each type listed above with overlapping elements where possible. It is not expected that any firm or team will have all the capabilities or projects in each of these elements.

7) Should a firm responding be classified as a SB (including 8(a), HUBzone, WOSB, VOSB, and SDVOSB), the firm should also describe their in-house capabilities to accomplish the above stated work requirements. It is noted that this will apply to each individual task order that is set aside for SB concerns under multiple award contracts. In accordance with requirements of RFO 52.219-14, contractors “will not pay more than 50 percent of the amount paid by the Government for contract performance to subcontractors that are not similarly situated entities” over the life of the contract. “Similarly situated” subcontractor means a first-tier subcontractor, including an independent contractor that has the same small business program status as that which qualified the prime contractor for the award and that is considered small for the specified NAICS code.

All Small Business Joint Ventures (JVs) are required to meet the subcontracting limitations set forth in RFO 52.219-14, "Limitations on Subcontracting." Additionally, JVs formed via U.S. Small Business Administration’s Mentor-Protégé agreements, or the 8(a) joint venture program must adhere to the specific performance requirements outlined in FAR 52.219-14(g).

Interested small and large businesses should also describe the plan/method to be used in selection of subcontractors for disciplines not provided by in-house resources to ensure appropriate level of experience and quality of work.

8) Interested firms should provide input on their abilities to participate in a MATOC pool of up to $49M with the assumption they would need to execute $8M worth of work over five (5) years.

9) Interested small and large businesses are asked to provide a response to the following questions: a) does your firm have a dedicated business line for federal work to fully staff and support the execution of multiple task orders concurrently; b) if so, how many total staff are dedicated to federal work?

Responses should be limited to a .pdf file that shall not exceed twenty-five (25) 8.5”x11” pages (not including cover sheet); 11”x17” pages can be used where appropriate but count as two (2) pages. Each file shall be bookmarked for each section and shall be searchable (e.g., not locked). Responses are due by May 28, 2026. Responses should be emailed to Tyler Maryak at tyler.s.maryak@usace.army.mil. NO APPOINTMENTS OR TELEPHONE CALLS WILL BE ACCEPTED. This Sources Sought announcement is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government. The Government will not pay for any material provided in response to this market survey nor return the data provided. This is not a request to be placed on a solicitation mailing list nor is it a Request for Proposal (RFP) or an announcement of a solicitation. The results of this survey will be considered to be in effect for a period of one year from the date of this notice.