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FBO DAILY ISSUE OF JULY 29, 2010 FBO #3169
SOLICITATION NOTICE

A -- Design and Implement a System for Archiving and Disseminating Data from SHRP 2 Reliability and Related Studies and Assistance to Contractors to Archive Their Data for Reliability Projects

Notice Date

7/27/2010
 

Notice Type

Combined Synopsis/Solicitation
 

NAICS

541712 — Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (except Biotechnology)
 

Contracting Office

The National Academies, Transportation Research Board, SHRP2, 500 Fifth Street NW, Washington, District of Columbia, 20001, United States
 

ZIP Code

20001
 

Solicitation Number

SHRP2_L13A
 

Archive Date

10/12/2010
 

Point of Contact

David Plazak, Phone: 202-334-1834, Linda Mason, Phone: 202-334-3241
 

E-Mail Address

dplazak@nas.edu, lmason@nas.edu
(dplazak@nas.edu, lmason@nas.edu)
 

Small Business Set-Aside

N/A
 

Description

SHRP 2 Request for Proposals Focus Area: Reliability Project Number: L13A Project Title: Design and Implement a System for Archiving and Disseminating Data from SHRP 2 Reliability and Related Studies and Assistance to Contractors to Archive Their Data for Reliability Projects Date Posted: July 27, 2010 SHRP 2 Background To address the challenges of moving people and goods efficiently and safely on the nation's highways, Congress has created the second Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP 2). SHRP 2 is a targeted, short-term research program carried out through competitively awarded contracts to qualified researchers in the academic, private, and public sectors. SHRP 2 addresses four strategic focus areas: the role of human behavior in highway safety (Safety); rapid highway renewal (Renewal); improved travel time reliability through congestion reduction (Reliability); and transportation planning that better integrates community, economic, and environmental considerations into new highway capacity (Capacity). Under current legislative provisions, SHRP 2 will receive approximately $170 million with total program duration of at least 7 years. Additional information about SHRP 2 can be found on the program's Web site at www.trb.org/shrp2. Reliability Focus Area The major objective of SHRP 2 Reliability research is to greatly improve the reliability of highway travel times by reducing the frequency and effects of events that cause travel times to fluctuate in an unpredictable manner. The results of the research program should help local, state, and national agencies reduce travel time variability for travelers and shippers. The Reliability research plan addresses both recurring and nonrecurring congestion with an emphasis on nonrecurring congestion. The following seven potential sources of unreliable travel times (i.e., events that cause variable travel times) were identified: traffic incidents, work zones, demand fluctuations, special events, traffic control devices, weather, and inadequate base capacity. The Reliability focus area targets travel time variation-that frustrating characteristic of the transportation system that means you must allow an hour to make a trip that normally takes 30 minutes. Not only is reliability an important component for travelers and shippers, it is also an area of the congestion problem in which transportation agencies can make significant gains even as travel demand grows. The seven sources of unreliability account for approximately half of the total delay. Reducing reliability-related delay will also result in fewer crashes, reduced vehicle emissions and fuel use, and other benefits. These benefits can be realized through a mix of leading-edge research into a better understanding of strategies and their consequences, new technology and practices, and reducing institutional barriers so that our existing knowledge can be more fully exploited. Project Background Roughly half of all highway congestion is caused by events such as traffic incidents, special events, construction and maintenance activities, and weather. This is called "nonrecurring congestion." Such events lead to variations in travel times that can be both costly and frustrating. The SHRP 2 Reliability focus area has commissioned or is in the final stages of commissioning almost 20 research projects costing approximately $20 million; together these projects were designed to lay the foundation for understanding and improving travel time reliability. Reliability research products are starting to be completed and next steps will move some of them into practice. The groundwork also now needs to be laid for future efforts in travel time reliability research. It is well understood that the study of travel time reliability (and how to improve it) is a relatively new field of research and practice; the $20 million SHRP 2 research effort is simply a beginning. The SHRP 2 research projects will have collectively developed a large collection of raw datasets, analysis results, tools and models, and documentation. It is now important to archive the data and results of the SHRP 2 Reliability research effort to provide a starting point for future travel time reliability research efforts. This project combines two closely related projects, L13A and L16, into one project that has been designed as L13A. Prospective bidders should be aware of the results of SHRP 2 Project L13, which assessed the feasibility of a SHRP 2 Reliability Data Archive, evaluated alternative technological approaches to an archive, made recommendations for its design, and developed a small-scale prototype archive for demonstration purposes. The final report for this project is not yet published, but will be made available to the successful bidder prior to the start of the L13A project. The main conclusions from the L13 feasibility study draft final report were that: •A SHRP 2 Reliability Data Archive is feasible and can be made operational within the available project budget and time frame. •The most cost-effective approach to developing an archive that meets the needs of likely users and the SHRP 2 Program is one that is web-based and which utilizes cloud computing services and commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software for building, populating, and operating the archive as a digital data repository. •The size of the data holdings from the SHRP 2 Reliability focus area program appears to be 70 terabytes at minimum. The L13 project team also developed a small-scale prototype archive for demonstration purposes. The prototype contains a variety of data from SHRP 2 Project L03. [See Special Note A] Target Audiences There could be several potential audiences for a SHRP 2 Reliability Data Archive. In order to not spread the available resources too thin, it will be important for the project team to carefully define the primary intended market for the archive and design it accordingly. For the purposes of this project, the key target audiences are defined as follows: •University faculty, staff, and students in civil engineering, transportation planning, and logistics/supply chain management who conduct research on travel time reliability and closely related topics. •Researchers from private consulting firms and other private enterprises involved in analyzing and modeling travel time reliability and closely related topics. It is anticipated that such researchers will be most interested in raw datasets, however all types of data associated with the SHRP 2 research projects should be included in the archive. While the primary audience for the archive is expected to be researchers interested in building on the base of SHRP 2 travel time reliability research or validating the original research results, it is possible that practitioners in traffic operations and travel demand/traffic simulation modeling may also find datasets and other information available in the archive to be useful. For example, traffic operations center staff and network modelers may find examples of dataset development and organization, data preparation, and data cleaning to be very useful. Project Objectives Many of the SHRP 2 contractors performing research on travel time reliability have provisions in their contracts requiring them to provide the various types of data they collect, produce, and use for inclusion in the archive to be developed under combined project 13A. Reliability project data can take a wide variety of forms including raw alpha-numeric databases, spreadsheets, reports, web pages, data development processes, and analytical tools and software. The intent of this request for proposals is that the word "data" be construed broadly. The main objective for the L13A project is to make all data in all forms gathered in each of the SHRP 2 Reliability focus area research projects available via the Internet to researchers and others for purposes such as independent validation of SHRP 2 research results and for use in extending travel time reliability research. The data archive should also be designed to include data from a handful of projects from other SHRP 2 focus areas that also address travel time reliability. It is expected that the archive will mainly include "non-sensitive" data developed or enhanced by SHRP 2 contractors so that the data contained in it can be accessed and downloaded in an open manner via the Internet; however, some issues involving data confidentiality and data ownership may arise and will need to be resolved. This may necessitate means to administratively lock down selected data for some users. Sub-objectives of the L13A project are to: •Design and develop an intuitive, easy-to-navigate user interface for the archive through which the target audience(s) can discover and download data and other archive contents to meet their needs, whether for research or practice. •Develop an open, transferable, scalable, and flexible information system to archive and document all existing and anticipated SHRP 2 Reliability focus area data plus data from selected Capacity and Renewal projects. [See Special Note C] •Provide assistance as necessary to other relevant SHRP 2 contractors on a case-by-case basis to help prepare metadata for their project data and archive it in a way that makes it accessible, understandable, and useful for the target audience(s). •Build interactive features into the data archive such that travel time reliability researchers and practitioners can discuss datasets and their use and share information and lessons learned. Interactive features should also allow users to provide web links to other external data sources that researchers and practitioners may find useful. •Operate, maintain, improve, and extend the archive system throughout the life of the SHRP 2 Program. •Develop a marketing, outreach, and training strategy and implement it in order to make potential users of the data archive aware of its availability and instruct them in its use. •Develop a plan for the eventual transfer of ownership of the reliability data archive to a new agency or institution near the end of the SHRP 2 program. Tasks Task descriptions are intended to provide a framework for conducting the research. SHRP 2 is seeking the insights of proposers on how best to achieve the research objectives for this project. Proposers are expected to describe research plans that can realistically be accomplished within the constraints of available funds and contract time. Proposals must present the proposers' current thinking in sufficient detail to demonstrate their understanding of the issues and the soundness of their approach to meeting the research objectives. Tasks for this project are not necessarily sequential; some tasks can and should be done in parallel. Proposers should provide a detailed project plan that shows how they intend to sequence tasks. This project is be broken down into multiple phases required to systematically design, build, populate, operate, and maintain the archive. In addition, there will be a marketing, outreach, and training component to the project. SHRP 2 is a "limited life" program. Therefore, a plan will need to be prepared near the end of the project for an eventual transfer of ownership of the archive. Phase I: User and System Requirements Definition 1.Review the final report and small-scale prototype completed through SHRP 2 Project L13. 2.Prepare a brief scan of other relevant on-line data archives that might be useful in the identification of design features and operating practices. 3.Prepare a technical memorandum on key characteristics of the target audience(s) and an outline for a user-oriented archive design process and user engagement strategy. 4.Prepare a technical memorandum on anticipated user needs and goals for the archive system. 5.Prepare a technical memorandum exploring likely use cases: how targeted users would be expected to use the archive. 6.Prepare a technical memorandum providing a preliminary inventory of data to be archived by project and type, including data compressibility considerations, anticipated needs for storage capacity, anticipated needs for bandwidth, anticipated costs to perform archiving and develop metadata, and costs to maintain. 7.Prepare a preliminary system and user requirements document, including a discussion of any standards to be met for service to users, document and data management, metadata, software, usage tracking, user account management, proposed interactive features and life expectancies for the archived data. 8.Develop a preliminary design document for the high-level system architecture of the archive. 9.Provide opportunities for the SHRP 2 Project L13A Technical Expert Task Group (T-ETG) to provide constructive input on the products of Phase I. 10.Prepare an interim report summarizing Phase I of the project. At this point in the project, the T-ETG will be asked to provide approval prior to prototyping. Phase II: Prototyping and User Acceptance Testing 1.Develop a plan for the archive prototyping and user acceptance testing phase, including plans for user focus groups and design events to be employed. 2.Consider incorporating visualization and mapping elements to facilitate user high-level understanding of and navigation through the data archive. 3.Develop wireframes of alternatives for the archive user interface and navigation aspects of the archive system that a selected group of users can react to. 4.Develop a preliminary prototype archive for use in design reviews by selected users. (It is anticipated that this prototype design will be more polished than the small-scale, demonstration prototype developed through Project L13, which was designed without the involvement of potential users.) 5.Plan and hold a design event or set of events that actively involve potential archive users in the design of the archive. 6.Develop a working prototype archive populated with selected SHRP 2 Reliability data that can be further tested by users from the target audience(s) to obtain feedback for final design purposes. 7.Provide opportunities for the SHRP 2 Project L13A Technical Expert Task Group (T-ETG) to provide constructive input on the results of Phase II. At this point in the project the T-ETG will be asked to provide a decision on whether to move ahead with final development and deployment of the data archive. 8.Prepare an interim report documenting the prototyping and user acceptance testing phase of the project Phase III: Archive Development [Note: Phase III of the L13A project cannot be initiated without prior approval from SHRP 2.] 1.Assemble data already collected by other SHRP 2 contractors to be included in the archive and populate the archive, providing assistance to the original SHRP 2 contractors where necessary in order to accomplish this task. 2.Prepare a final inventory of the data included in the archive. 3.Obtain or develop necessary metadata for each data item included in the archive. 4.Identify and address any potential issues regarding data confidentiality and data ownership prior to archiving. 5.Perform quality assurance and control on all data items being archived. 6.Develop a usage tracking system so that the actual market for the archive can be better understood. It is strongly suggested that the creation of user accounts not be required in order to discover and download data. Optional registration of users may be considered, for instance at the time of data download. 7.Develop interactive functionality for the archive, including such features as forums and wikis as appropriate. Interactive features should allow for questions, comments, and external links to other data sets but should not allow for the modification of original data in the archive. 8.Prepare system documentation and user documentation. Phase IV: Launch, Marketing, Outreach, and Training 1.Develop a marketing, outreach, and training plan for the archive to build awareness and use by the targeted audience(s). This plan should include consideration of branding for the archive, as appropriate. 2.Develop necessary marketing and training materials to support the plan. This should include on-line features built into the archive. 3.Plan and implement a set of events to highlight the launch of the archive. These events might include webinars, conference presentations, demonstrations at appropriate events, and paper competitions for researchers and graduate students that highlight the use of data from the archive. The project team should consider using the original researchers from the archived projects to assist them in marketing, training, and outreach since they are the experts on the archived data. 4.Implement the marketing, outreach, and training plan. 5.Prepare a summary report for this phase of the project. Phase V: Operations, Maintenance, and Continuing User Engagement 1.Develop an operations and maintenance plan for the archive. 2.Archive any new data from ongoing SHRP 2 Reliability (and several relevant Capacity and Renewal) projects as they are completed. 3.Provide moderator and host services as necessary for the interactive portions of the archive and provide other services necessary to achieve a high level of user engagement. 4.Continue to operate and maintain the archive throughout the life of the project. 5.Extend and enhance the functionality of the data archive, if feasible. 6.Prepare an annual report summarizing the operation of the archive, including usage statistics. Phase VI: Planning for Transfer of Ownership 1.Monitor relevant efforts such as SHRP 2 Reliability Project L17 and the AASHTO/NCHRP Operations Center of Excellence Project. 2.Develop a plan for the transfer of ownership of the archive, including consideration of relevant legal and regulatory considerations involved in transferring the archive to its ultimate owner. This plan should be prepared in close consultation with the SHRP 2 L13A T-ETG. Deliverables by Phase Phase I 1.A technical memorandum on the key characteristics of the target audience(s) 2.A technical memorandum summarizing the results of the scan of other relevant archives 3.An outline for a user-oriented archive design process and user engagement strategy 4.A technical memorandum on anticipated user needs and goals for the archive system 5.A technical memorandum exploring use cases 6.A technical memorandum providing a preliminary inventory of data to be archived by project and type, including an estimate of resource needs 7.A preliminary system and user requirements document 8.A preliminary design document for the high-level system architecture of the data archive 9.An interim report summarizing Phase I of the project Phase II 1.A plan for the archive prototyping and user acceptance testing phase 2.Wireframes of alternatives for the archive user interface and navigation system 3.A preliminary prototype archive for use in design reviews 4.A summary of the design events utilized to actively involve users 5.A working prototype archive populated with selected SHRP 2 Reliability data 6.An interim report documenting the user acceptance and testing phase of the project Phase III 1.A final inventory of the data to be archived 2.A fully-functional data archive system, including a usage tracking system and interactive features, that is operational and can be made available to users 3.System and user documentation for the archive; the user documentation should be available on-line as a part of the archive system Phase IV 1.A marketing, outreach, and training plan for the archive [see Special Note G] 2.Marketing and training materials to support the plan 3.A summary of the set of events to used to highlight the launch of the archive 4.Phase IV summary report. Phase V 1.An operations and maintenance plan for the archive 2.An annual report summarizing the operation of the archive, including usage statistics Phase VI 1.A plan for the transfer of archive ownership and operations to its ultimate owner Overall 1.A draft research report summarizing the conduct of the project and its results. This report will be commented upon by the T-ETG 2.A final research report, incorporating comments from the T-ETG Funds Available: A total of $1.475 million is available to cover all phases of the project. Contract Time: 36 months. Responsible Staff: David Plazak, dplazak@nas.edu, 202-334-1834 Authorization to Begin Work: February 1, 2011, anticipated Proposal Due Date: September 27, 2010 Proposals (20 single-bound copies) are due at the address below by 4:30 p.m. on September 27, 2010. This is a firm deadline, and extensions are not granted. To be considered, all 20 copies of the agency's proposal accompanied by the executed, unmodified Liability Statement must be in our offices not later than the deadline shown, or they will be rejected. Delivery Address: PROPOSAL-SHRP 2 ATTN: Neil F. Hawks Director, Strategic Highway Research Program 2 Transportation Research Board 500 Fifth Street, NW Washington DC 20001 Phone: 202-334-1340 Liability Statement The signature of an authorized representative of the proposing agency is required on the unaltered statement in order for SHRP 2 to accept the agency's proposal for consideration. Proposals submitted without this executed and unaltered statement by the proposal deadline will be rejected. An executed, unaltered statement indicates the agency's intent and ability to execute a contract that includes the provisions in the statement. Here is a printable version of the Liability Statement (http://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/shrp2/LiabilityStatement.pdf). A free copy of the Adobe Acrobat PDF reader is available at http://www.adobe.com. The Liability Statement is included as Figure 1 in the Manual for Conducting Research and Preparing Proposals for SHRP 2 (http://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/shrp2/PreparingSHRP2Reports.pdf) referred to in General Note 4. Special Notes Special Note A: Please contact the responsible staff officer (see below) to gain access to the small-scale data archive prototype developed as a product of SHRP 2 Project L13, the feasibility study for the Reliability data archive. Special Note B: Because of the interaction between many projects, parallel timing of some projects, and tight schedule, it is necessary for SHRP 2 researchers to closely coordinate with each other and with the SHRP 2 staff. The research team should allow resources for at least two meetings in Washington, D.C. In addition, a SHRP 2 staff officer may request a briefing once or twice during the project at the researcher's offices. Successful bidders may also be requested to make presentations on progress to the SHRP 2 Reliability Technical Coordinating Committee. Special Note C: The results of all other SHRP 2 Reliability projects (numbered L01 through L17) should be archived as a result of the L13A project. Consult the following web site for more details about the projects: http://www.trb.org/StrategicHighwayResearchProgram2SHRP2/Public/Pages/Reliability_Projects_302.aspx It should be noted that Reliability Projects L09 and L10A, B, and C were recently determined not feasible to proceed as originally planned. RFPs were not issued for these projects. Projects L13A and L16 were combined into one project designated L13A. In addition, the results of selected projects from the SHRP 2 Capacity and Renewal focus areas will be important to archive since they address travel time reliability either directly or indirectly. These projects include: •C04: Improving Our Understanding of How Highway Congestion and Pricing Affect Travel Demand •C05: Understanding the Contribution of Operations, Technology, and Design to Meeting Highway Capacity Needs •C10A and B: Partnership to Develop an Integrated Advanced Travel Demand Model and a Fine-Grained, Time-Sensitive Network (two project locations: Sacramento, CA and Jacksonville, FL) •R10: Innovative Project Management for Large, Complex Projects •R11: Strategic Approaches at the Corridor and Network Level to Minimize Disruption from the Renewal Process Several of the above-listed Capacity and Renewal projects have the potential to generate significant data holdings for the archive. It is anticipated at this time that the Safety focus area of SHRP 2 will be developing its own data archive since there are special data confidentiality issues associated with its Naturalistic Driving Study, which includes in-vehicle video data. See the following web sites for additional details about the Capacity and Renewal programs: http://www.trb.org/StrategicHighwayResearchProgram2SHRP2/Public/Pages/Capacity_Projects_301.aspx http://www.trb.org/StrategicHighwayResearchProgram2SHRP2/Public/Pages/Renewal_Projects_303.aspx Proposers must be prepared to coordinate with many other research teams involved in SHRP 2 research. Proposers should provide in their management plan for the project a section on how they intend to coordinate with other SHRP 2 research teams as this coordination will be critical to the success of SHRP 2 Reliability project L13A. Special Note D: In addition to the standard criteria described in the general notes, in evaluating the proposals for this project, the SHRP 2 staff and ETG will look carefully for a multidisciplinary approach. The ideal team will include expertise in travel time reliability research; data archive and repository design; information system design, development and operations; and data cataloging and metadata development. Some existing familiarity with the SHRP 2 Reliability focus area is desirable. Special Note E: All products of the research conducted through the L13A process, including the completed archive and all software, will become the property of the National Academies. All information technology design and procurement decisions must be made with this in mind. Special Note F: Since the L13A project is multidisciplinary and will likely have a complex team, proposers should provide a detailed management plan for the project, indicating which staff will be assigned to tasks and how the team will be managed. The management plan should also address quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) processes and the team's proposed system development process in some detail. Special Note G: SHRP 2 is establishing a team that will develop a strategy for communications and marketing activities primarily focused on implementing SHRP 2 research. The team will conduct market research and develop and carry out a communications plan for the overall program. The L13A research team should coordinate with the SHRP 2 communications and marketing team in developing content and design. General Notes 1. Proposals will be evaluated by SHRP 2 staff and Expert Task Groups (ETGs) consisting of individuals collectively very knowledgeable in the problem area. Selection of an agency is made by the SHRP 2 Oversight Committee, based on the recommendation from SHRP 2 staff and the ETG. The following factors are considered: (1) the proposer's demonstrated understanding of the problem; (2) the merit of the proposed research approach and experimental design-the approach to validating the handbook is a key consideration; (3) the experience, qualifications, and objectivity of the research team in the same or closely related problem area; (4) the proposer's plan for participation by disadvantaged business enterprises (DBEs)-small firms owned and controlled by minorities or women; and (5) the adequacy of facilities. TRB and the SHRP 2 Oversight Committee strongly encourage the significant participation of Disadvantaged Business Enterprises in SHRP 2 research contracts. Although no quota is specified nor is DBE participation mandated, the proposer's plan for involvement of DBEs is a factor in selection of the research contractor, and the contractor's adherence to its DBE plan will be monitored during the contract period. The "Research Team Builder" section of the SHRP 2 web site (http://www.trb.org/StrategicHighwayResearchProgram2SHRP2/Public/Pages/Research_Team_Builder_177.aspx) is a resource for proposers interested in participating on research teams. 2. Any clarifications regarding this RFP will be posted on the SHRP 2 Web site (www.TRB.org/SHRP2). Announcements of such clarifications will be posted on the front page and, when possible, will be noted in the TRB e-newsletter. Proposers are advised to check the Web site frequently until August 27, 2010 when no further comments will be posted. 3. According to the provisions of Title 49, Code of Federal Regulations, Part 21, which relates to nondiscrimination in federally assisted programs, all parties are hereby notified that the contract entered into pursuant to this announcement will be awarded without discrimination on the grounds of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, or disability. 4. The essential features required in a proposal for research are detailed in the Manual for Conducting Research and Preparing Proposals for SHRP 2 (http://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/shrp2/PreparingSHRP2Reports.pdf). Proposals must be prepared according to this document, and attention is directed specifically to Section IV for mandatory requirements. Proposals that do not conform to these requirements will be rejected. 5. The total funds available are made known in the project statement, and line items of the budget are examined to determine the reasonableness of the allocation of funds to the various tasks. If the proposed total cost exceeds the funds available, the proposal is rejected. 6. All proposals become the property of the Transportation Research Board. Final disposition will be made according to the policies thereof, including the right to reject all proposals. IMPORTANT NOTICE Potential proposers should understand that the research project described herein is tentative. The final content of the program depends on the level of funding made available. Nevertheless, to be prepared to execute research contracts as soon as possible after sponsors' approvals, the second Strategic Highway Research Program is assuming that the tentative program will become official in its entirety and is proceeding with requests for proposals and selections of research agencies.
 

Web Link

FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/spg/NationalAcademies/NATRB/TRBSHRP2/SHRP2_L13A/listing.html)
 

Record

SN02219865-W 20100729/100728000231-15f404ac7b19f15c1a0e537dbdffbbf8 (fbodaily.com)
 

Source

FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
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