Notice of Intent to Issue a Sole Source Purchase Order for Investigation of Highly Nonlinear Solitary Waves For Detecting Incipient Track Buckling Conditions

The United States Department of Transportation, Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), Office of Acquisition Services, under the authority of the Federal Acquisition Rules (FAR) Part 13, Simplified Acquisition Procedures, intends to issue a sole source purchase order to the University of Pittsburgh of Pittsburgh, PA to continue investigating the use of highly nonlinear solitary waves for detecting incipient track buckling conditions. The justification is as follows. FRA's Office of Research and Development is continuing the research of the use of highly nonlinear solitary waves for detection of incipient track buckling. The solicited work would make minor modifications to software models and hardware, developed under a previous contract performed by the university, with the goal of learning more about the feasibility of using highly nonlinear solitary waves for detection of incipient track buckling conditions. The initial work was awarded under competitive FRA R&D broad agency announcement. Because of the complexity involved with researching and developing such a system, utilization of another contractor would result in an unavoidably steep a learning curve. In addition, employing another contractor would result in substantial cost increases as use of another contractor would necessitate duplication of costs to bring that contractor up-to-speed, very likely equal to the entire cost of the previous track buckling conditions work. Lastly, the University of Pittsburgh has intellectual property rights to some highly nonlinear wave approaches and algorithms, required for the work, which would almost certainly not be available to another contractor. NO SOLICITATION OR REQUEST FOR QUOTE IS AVAILABLE. Notwithstanding, any firm that believes it is capable of meeting this requirement may submit a response, which if received within two days of the closing date of this announcement, will be considered. Responses to this announcement must be in writing to the Contract Specialist, Ryan Daniels, at [email protected].