USDA Forest Service, Contracting, P.O. Box 21628, Juneau, AK 99802-1628

C -- BEGICH, BOGGS VISITOR CENTER EXHIBIT DESIGN, CHUGACH NATIONAL FOREST SOL R10-99-01 DUE 102298 POC Lisa Peterson or Ron Klaudt (907)586-8880 E-MAIL: lpeterson/r10@fs.fed.us, lpeterson/r10@fs.fed.us. Exhibit Design Services. The USDA, Forest Service, Alaska Region intends to contract for interpretive exhibit design services to produce all plans, drawings, and specifications for fabricating and installing new exhibits and a fee collection station for the Begich-Boggs Visitor Center (BBVC), located in Portage Valley. The BBVC is approximately 55 miles south of Anchorage, Alaska and is accessible by automobile year round. The overall project manager for this project shall be a professional exhibit designer. All exhibit design work shall be performed by a professional exhibit designer. The Forest Service will provide guidelines in the form of the document entitled The BBVC Exhibit Redesign Proposal, as well as through on-going contact with the designer throughout the design process, and will make slide libraries and natural resource expertise available to be used in the proposed exhibit contents. Two separate presentations shall be held by the designers at the Chugach NF headquarters (at the 35% and 95% completion stages for the design). Also, a meeting between Forest Service officials and the design team shall be planned for the 65% design stage at the contractor's location. Following each presentation, the Forest Service will provide comments that will need to be incorporated into the design work in order to successfully complete the work. All new exhibits and the fee collection station will need to be designed with the BBVC's existing electrical and mechanical systems in mind. A professional electrical engineer shall evaluate the existing electrical systems and provide any design modifications necessary to accomodate the new design. In addition to the professional exhibit designer/project manager and the professional electrical engineer, key personnel shall include a professional lighting specialist and an experienced specification writer. The estimated start work date is early to mid December 1998. The contract time will be 360 calendar days to complete all work. A firm-fixed-price contract for architect-engineer services will be negotiated. Interested firms may request a Scope of Services announcement from the contracting office. Firms will be required to complete an SF-254 and SF-255 to be considered for this project. Following a review and evaluation of qualification and performance data by an A&E Review Board, negotiations will be commenced with the top-ranked firm on the selection list for this project. Selection of firms for negotiation is through an order of preference based on demonstrated competence and qualifications necessary for the satisfactory performance of the type of professional service required, as determined by applying the following criteria: (1) Professional qualifications necessary for satisfactory performance of the required services (include resum s of all key personnel); (2) Specialized experience and technical competence in interpretive exhibitry design, electrical engineering, lighting design, and specification development for similar natural resource based projects; (3) Capacity to accomplish the work in the required time (include information as to the firm's current and projected workload and its capability to accomplish this project); (4) Past performance on contracts with Government agencies and private industry in terms of cost control, quality of work, and compliance with performance schedules (provide complete list of references for the last 5 years); and (5) Knowledge of the locality of this project; provided that application of this criterion yields an appropriate number of qualified firms, given the nature and size of the project (an appropriate number of firms for purposes of this project is 3 or more highly qualified firms). To receive a Scope of Services announcement, either FAX request to (907) 586-7090, send request by mail or request by telephone. Posted 09/17/98 (W-SN251364). (0260)

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