16 contractors awarded spots for $2B NIH ID/IQ contract

The National Institutes of Health has chosen 16 contractors to participate in an Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (ID/IQ) contract worth, in total, up to $2 billion for general construction services.

All qualified contractors were invited to bid, but the NIH did hold out some set-asides for companies considered disadvantaged. These carve-outs were for certified Historically Underutilized Business Zones (HUBZone) contractors under Small Business Administration (SBA) rules, Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses (SDVOSB), SBA-certified 8(a) contractors and other small businesses.

The multiple award construction contract (MACC) does not guarantee that any of these contractors will actually perform work beyond a base $1,000, but instead gives them the opportunity to submit bids through the life of the contract. The issued task orders will range from $2,000 to $700 million and will encompass NIH projects in Maryland, Louisiana, North Carolina and Montana.

The ID/IQ procurement method allows the customer to keep a select pool of contractors "on call," which saves time since owners don't need to qualify companies for each project. Bidders also usually provide unit pricing with their ID/IQ proposals, which allows customers to project costs through the life of the contract period.

Contractors that earned a spot under the HUBZone designation are:

FBGC JV LLC (Hampton, Virginia)
Puyenpa Services LLC (Duckwater, Nevada)
HSU Development Inc. (Gaithersburg, Maryland)

The SDVOSB contractors chosen to participate are:

HSU Development Inc. (Conshohocken, Pennsylvania)
Polu Kai Services, LLC (Falls Church, Virginia)
Cutlass Contracting LLC-Protégé HBA Construction-Mentor (Smithsburg, Maryland)

The 8(a) contractors selected are:

Argus CJW JV 3 LLC (Leesburg, Virginia)
Belt Built-Protégé CFM Government Services- Mentor JV (Crofton, Maryland)
Four Tribes AIR JV LLC (Gaithersburg, Maryland)

Winning contractors designated as small businesses are:

Asturian-Consigli JV LLC (Virginia Beach, Virginia)
AG JV (Leesburg, Virginia)
Olgoonik Specialty Contractors LLC (Anchorage, Alaska)

Contractors that earned their slots on an unrestricted basis are:

Clark Construction Group (Bethesda, Maryland)
M.A. Mortenson Construction (Minneapolis)
Hensel Phelps (Tysons Corner, Virginia)
The Whiting-Turner Contracting Co. (Baltimore)

The NIH also awarded Asturian-Consigli JV LLC a "seed" project valued at more than $395,000 for the replacement of an emergency generator at one of the NIH's facilities.

The general construction work to NIH-owned and leased facilities — industrial, office, laboratory, medical and animal care buildings — is expected to include maintenance, mechanical, electrical, HVAC, demolition, painting, paving and earthwork.

Other government entities have also recently used the ID/IQ procurement approach. In April, the Department of Defense chose six contractors to compete for $975 million of Navy construction projects around the world under an ID/IQ contract and, in February, selected five contractors to compete for $240 million of domestic Navy projects.