A:  The City project management team discussed this after the pre-bid conference. While we have a concept previously developed, we are asking the selected firm to start from scratch to develop full design. The City received grant funding and must contain the project within those grant budgets, so therefore yes price is a consideration in selection. The Brooks Act does not apply to PIDP or BUILD grant programs. It used to but they changed that in 2021.  (Certain Federal Highway Administration grant projects (such as INFRA) do still reference Brooks Act.) It is the City’s option whether to consider price.  It is the City’s option whether to base selection on experience and qualifications, and negotiate price during contract negotiations. As you can see under Section VII of the RFP, only a maximum of 10 points can be considered for pricing.  90% of the scoring is qualifications and prior experience. The City is not required to select the lowest bid.  The City recommends that firms plan for unknowns and contingencies.

A: Yes, the subcontractor would be excluded from bidding on the construction phase as that is a conflict of interest. This was confirmed by MARAD.

A: Not at this point.  Component 1 is funded through PIDP.  We have to complete the NEPA and other requirements first, then seek approval from MARAD to move to the next phase of whole design.  Estimated you’ll need around 35% of design to say here’s what we’re doing, here’s the impact we need to look at for NEPA.  For component 2 that is just purely planning.  We want to be able to have 95-100% design drawings then go shop for funding to build it.  We don’t have money for construction at this point so bid support would not be part of that.

A:  We are asking for pricing to complete both Component 1 and  Component 2 through to 100% design to be shovel ready projects for the City to seek construction funding.

A:  Yes, both Component 1 and 2 are all the way through to 100% design.  Then we can go look for funding for construction.  There’s some level of utilities already, basic lighting, ability to connect to sewer.  It’s pretty much a transient harbor. Boats do not stay long.  They drop off and pick up material, personnel, groceries, fuel, etc.  It’s not a typical harbor with long term moorage nor ever have that due to the nature of the users within the Bering Sea.  

A: On the PIDP, the whole design and construction if you’re driving piles of any sort, then that’s in water work that would require permitting – fur seals, birds.  Don’t make those a high concern.  Document what to protect and how to protect it from impact from any water work.  Geotech work has previously been done over the years. There was repair and dredging this summer that went through those processes.  Marine species present year round are a concern.  Need to propose how to mitigate any potential impacts, like having an observer during in water work to ensure you’re working the plan you made and noting if a seal comes by whether work was stopped or not.

A: Purpose of this RFP would be one project with separate design sets and separate cost estimates, so when we look for funding we can pick out parts so we have design set for each.  If all in one, that would be complicated to seek funding.

A:  We provided that information as an attachment to the RFP. Attachment F is the NEPA process, updated.  This is a newer process.  Basically, there’s a list of items we provide to the granting agency, MARAD, they review and let us know when they reviewed it and that starts the EA clock for one year and an EAF is two years. We urge you to read Attachment F for all the details on that so you can better understand what their process is.

A: No because we don’t have the grant agreement yet.  For component 1 we put in pre-award costs application to get all the items in component one completed and then they will award us the grant that would kick off all the dates.  There is a pause for component 1 in the schedule while we wait for what those preliminary activities are approved by MARAD and then we get the grant agreement.

A: Yes.

A: It was only on component 2.  To clarify – we did not need to do the environmental assessment to do this RFP for planning work.  None of this is construction so the City did not need to do any NEPA or environmental. We are requesting from firms that you do all the NEPA requirements to get us ready for construction for all of these components.  We want you to do all the preconstruction activities of which environmental is one. To move to construction for Component 1 we need to have that submitted.  Don’t need it just for this planning stage. We strongly recommend you read through all the attachments.  There is valuable information in them that will help answer a lot more questions.  The grant applications to BUILD and PIDP go into a lot of detail about the problems and how to resolve them.