The U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Eastern Region Acquisitions Division-Kansas City office intends to award, on a sole source basis, under the authority of FAR 13.106-1(b)(1), with Nortek USA Inc., 21 Drydock Avenue, Boston, MA, for one Nortek Aquadopp 1MHz profiler and one Nortek Aquadopp 600kHz profiler to support water level and oceanographic current monitoring systems, coastal surveys, and coastal environmental modelling for the National Ocean Service (NOS) Engineering Division in Chesapeake, VA.

Sole Source Justification

The sensors are used in operational deployments supporting mission critical maritime navigation and emergency response efforts and are the standard systems used at NOS met/ocean observatories that support the National Current Observation Program (NCOP) and Physical Oceanographic Real-Time Systems (PORTS) applications.  The NOAA Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services (CO-OPS) currently owns 27 Nortek sensors valued at over $500k.

CO-OPS employs a standardized current survey system in order to help maintain a robust, reliable, and cost efficient network of coastal and Great Lakes observatories. The Nortek Aquadopp profilers are used in ports and coastal regions to record oceanographic current information critical to tide predictions and coastal modelling conducted by the NOS and used by commercial shipping and recreational vessel operators. The Nortek Aquadopp profilers are the standard systems used by CO-OPS for specific current measurement scenarios encountered during operations each year. Existing mounting hardware, data ingestion software, and data telemetry systems are designed to accommodate the specific sizes and dimensions of the Nortek sensors. Modifications to these ancillary systems would require extensive engineering, design, and coding rework and would require significantly more budgetary and staffing resources to complete mission critical work.

Resolving accurate currents from small surface buoy platforms has been a major challenge for oceanographers and marine scientists. An acoustic Doppler current profiler uses its transducer geometry, the water’s speed of sound, and the time between signal transmit and received echo to time-gate each depth bin’s distance along each beam. The vertical distance to each bin is then the projection of all beams onto the instrument’s vertical axis. CO-OPS has successfully integrated these sensors into standardized maritime platforms

NortekUSA confirmed they are the only authorized dealer of Nortek products in North America.

Special Notice

This is the only notice to be posted.  This special notice is not a request for competitive offers and no solicitation package is available. However, firms that believe they can provide the required profilers in compliance with the above justification may submit substantiating documentation in writing within the open period of this notice.  Responses can be sent via e-mail to [email protected]. Documentation will be evaluated solely for the purpose of determining whether or not to conduct this procurement on a competitive basis. A determination by the Government not to conduct a competitive procurement, based upon response to this notice, is solely within the discretion of the Government. Oral communications are not acceptable in response to this notice. If no documentation is received, award will be made directly to Nortek USA Inc.

DOC, Eastern Region Acquisition Division requires that all contractors doing business with this office be registered with the System for Award Management (SAM). No award can be made to a company not registered in SAM. For additional information and to register in SAM, please access the following web site: www.sam.gov. To register, all contractors must have a Dun and Bradstreet number. A Dun and Bradstreet number may be acquired free of charge by contacting Dun and Bradstreet on-line at http://www.dnb.com/eupdate or by telephone at (800)333-0505.