Notice of Intent to Sole Source: Gravel Loading of Ice

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC), Cold Regions Research Laboratory (CRREL) intends to award a contract on a sole source basis to FS&G Aggregate. upon the basis of the authority provided at FAR 12.102(a).

The Engineering Research and Development Center (ERDC), Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) in Alaska has a requirement for gravel loading of lake ice throughout the 2026 winter season in support of data collection for a terrestrial ice project.

Mission and Background:

• CRREL engineers are involved in the development of an application that would allow accurate characterization of the strength of ice.
• CRREL seeks the collection of novel and appropriate data for in-house analysis.
• The Contractor shall perform the loading of the ice, and CRREL personnel will be onsite during the ice loading iterations to take measurements.

Scope:

The contractor shall perform up to three (3) lake ice loading iterations throughout the winter season as the ice progressively thickens. There will be three tests that shall occur at each of the following approximate lake ice thicknesses: 4”, 6” to 8”, 10” to 12”, 16” to 18”, 20” to 24”, and 26” to 30”. The tests will consist of one impact strength, one elastic loading (dynamic), and one visco-elastic loading (stationary) test during each ice thickness period. The Contractor shall provide all machinery, gravel, and facilities to perform the loading of ice.

Additional requirements exist and can be found in the Performance Work Statement (PWS).

FS&G Aggregate supplied and placed the gravel for the initial phase of ice load testing conducted during the 2024 winter season at its Fairbanks, Alaska facility, where the test site characteristics—including lake geometry, water depth, gravel material, and placement methodology—were established and documented.

Continuation of testing under identical site conditions is essential to ensure the technical validity, comparability, and integrity of the data collected across multiple winter seasons. Use of a different contractor or an alternate location would introduce uncontrolled variables that would invalidate direct comparison with previously collected data and require replication of prior testing at additional cost and schedule impact to the Government.

As FS&G Aggregate is the only contractor capable of providing access to the established test site and replicating the exact gravel material and placement conditions required to support continuity of the research, no other source can meet the Government’s minimum technical requirements without unacceptable duplication of cost and effort. Accordingly, FS&G Aggregate is the only responsible source that can satisfy this requirement.

This Notice of Intent is not a request for competitive quotations.  However, interested parties may identify their interest and capability to respond to this requirement. Any interested party that believes they can fulfill this requirement should submit a capability statement to be reviewed. All submissions will be considered, however there is no guarantee that submissions in response to this notice will in any way alter the Government's acquisition strategy.

Responses to this notice shall be submitted NLT 12:00 PM CST, 03 March 2026 to Latosha.N.Rodgers@usace.army.mil

Telephone responses will not be accepted.

Responses to this notice will not be considered as a response to any solicitation, a request to be added to a prospective offerors list, or to receive a copy of any solicitation. A determination by the Government not to compete the contract based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. Information received will be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement.

Note: In order to be eligible for award of a Government contract, vendors must be actively registered in the System for Award Management (SAM), have no active exclusions, and complete the FAR and DFARS representations and certifications.