Cost of Compliance for HS Rail Noise (№10681367)

Contract was awarded on 9/11/18 and the following notice of intent to sole source was posted on FBO on May 16, 2018.

The sole source justification is as follows:

The United States Department of Transportation, Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), Office of Acquisition Services, under the authority of the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) 6.302-1 - Only One Responsible Source, intends to issue a sole source contract to Ricardo, Inc., for follow-on research to the "High Speed Rail Noise Standards and Regulations" project completed under a recently completed FRA contract (# DTFR53-16-C-00006). This contract assessed global regulations and standards for high speed rail. The study found that as well as the standards and regulations varying around the world, the reference basis also changed. This complicates the comparison of standards. However, noise theory could be applied to convert the various global standards to a common reference. This research effort to develop an analysis tool and a common reference comparison of the global standards and regulations would be a very beneficial addition to report for the Industry. As well as identifying the respective standards and regulations, 50-60 noise mitigation options were identified. The rail industry has expressed an interest in knowing the comparative cost of the various mitigation options as might be encountered in the US market. The period of performance will be 10 months.

The sole source justification is as follows. Ricardo, Inc. had competitively bid to perform the Phase I via the Broad Agency Announcement procurement methodology in 2016, and has successfully completed the project. Their follow-on proposal from the initial research outlines additional needed research that will further develop normalizing tools for accessing technology to address passenger train noise emission, improving passenger train service. FRA has identified the need that will be filled by this research and realizes that an award to Ricardo, Inc. for the proposed follow-on task to the previous research will be more cost conservative in comparison to an open and competitive award. Another contractor will need to expend resources to review and analyze the data needed for development of the cost compliance matrix. Ricardo has already completed that effort under the previous contract.