Amendment 0001
The purpose of this amendment 0001 is to provide answers to questions. Attachment 3 - Answers to Questions is hereby attached hereto and incorporated herein. The proposal due date remains unchanged. Proposals are due by 4:00 p.m. EST on 5/15/2014 in accordance with the Section L - Proposal Instructions of this solicitation.

Combined Synopsis Solicitation
This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial items prepared in accordance with the format in Subpart 12.6, as supplemented with additional information included in this notice. This announcement constitutes the only solicitation; proposals are being requested and a written solicitation will not be issued.

The solicitation number for this requirement is NTSB-R-14-0002. This solicitation is issued as a Request for Proposals (RFP).

The solicitation document and incorporated provisions and clauses are those in effect through Federal Acquisition Circular 2005-73.

This requirement is issued as a total small business set-aside. The associated NAICS code is 541330, "Engineering Services". The small business size standard of this NAICS code is $14M.

Background

NTSB Mission
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is an independent Federal agency charged by Congress with investigating every civil aviation accident in the United States and significant accidents in the other modes of transportation -- railroad, highway, marine and pipeline -- and issuing safety recommendations aimed at preventing future accidents.

Materials Laboratory, Office of Research and Engineering
The Material Laboratory is a division of the Office of Research and Engineering tasked with the study and analysis of material failures from transportation accidents. In doing so the laboratory must perform many activities on and with the accident components including but not limited to, documenting, examining, viewing and testing both destructively and non-destructively. In some cases, the lab sometimes must leverage outside laboratory resources to assist in accomplishing these duties.

Scope of Work
The NTSB has a requirement to obtain mechanical testing and petrographic services to test and examine concrete ties in support of an accident investigation involving the derailment of a freight train.

Review Attachments 1 and 2 which are attached hereto and incorporated herein for additional information.

Basis for Award
The Government may award one (1) contract to the responsible Contractor whose proposal that conforms to the RFP, will be most advantageous to the Government, price and other price factors considered, such that it provides the best value to the Government. Best value is defined as the procurement process that results in the most advantageous acquisition decision for the Government that is performed through an integrated assessment and trade-off analysis between price and non-price factors.

All responsible sources may submit a capability statement, proposal, or quotation, which shall be considered by the NTSB.

Clauses and Provisions
Review the attached Standard Form (SF) SF-18 which is attached hereto and incorporated herein for additional information.

Submission of Proposals
Your proposal must be received no later than 4:00 p.m., EST, on May 15, 2014. LATE PROPOSALS MAY NOT BE CONSIDERED in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) provision 52.212-1.

Offers may be transmitted via email to:
Bryan J. Moy
Email: [email protected]

The maximum size of an email, including attachments, which the NTSB email server can accept is 5 megabytes (MB). Therefore, the Contractor may choose to send their proposal in separate emails, if the combined file size of any email received by the NTSB email server will exceed 5MB. Contractors are encouraged to remove excess graphics from their proposals to ensure proposals remain under the file size limit. It is the Contractor's responsibility to ensure that the designated point of contact has received your proposal at the email address of the contact specified above by the proposal due date.

Questions Regarding the Combined Synopsis/Solicitation
All questions regarding this combined synopsis/solicitation shall be directed to Bryan J. Moy via email at [email protected]. ALL QUESTIONS MUST BE RECEIVED BY 4:00 p.m. EST on May 8, 2014.

Electronic Dissemination of Combined Synopsis/Solicitation
Access to this RFP and amendments will be posted on the Federal Business Opportunities website: www.fbo.gov. All Contractors are cautioned that it is your responsibility to frequently check back to the website to ensure that you have received all issued amendments.