The U.S. Maritime Administration (MARAD's) intends to establish a pool of vendors from whom MARAD can request pricing for and award contracts to dismantle obsolete vessels in the National Defense Reserve Fleets. Under this Request for Quotation (RFQ) DTMA1Q09001, offerors will be requested to submit technical proposals to provide environmentally-sound dismantling services. MARAD will evaluate all the domestic contractors' proposals it receives. Those offerors that are found to be technically acceptable will form a pool vendors cleared to compete for the dismantling work. MARAD will then periodically solicit pricing from these vendors in the pool and to award recycling contracts during the period between posting of the RFQ through December 31, 2009. The RFQ will remain open throughout the year for vendors to submit technical proposals in response to the RFQ. Offerors who have been found to be technically acceptable under the 2008 standing quotations process are considered qualified but will need to submit a certification that their previous technical proposal and any updates are complete and up-to date. Those who are technically not acceptable but susceptible to being made acceptable will need to update their proposals. MARAD is currently not accepting new proposals for foreign recycling under this RFQ. Under the fee-for-service process, MARAD pays for ship dismantlement services and under the Vessel Sales process, MARAD sells vessels for dismantlement. MARAD's obsolete vessels are principally located in three reserve fleet locations: the James River Reserve Fleet, (JRRF), Ft. Eustis, VA, Suisan Bay Reserve Fleet, (SBRF), Benicia, CA and Beaumont Reserve Fleet (BRF), Beaumont TX. It is anticipated that RFQ DTMA1Q09001 will be issued on or about October 15, 2008 at http://ideasec.nbc.gov and on the Virtual Office of Acquisition at https://voa.marad.dot.gov/. The RFQ related documents are available via MARAD's Virtual Office of Acquisition library (VOA) website https://voa.marad.dot.gov/programs/ship_disposal/index.asp. MARAD will only accept quotations submitted through this VOA website. Submissions via any other medium will neither be accepted nor evaluated. All responsible sources are encouraged to submit an offer which will be considered by MARAD. If you have questions regarding this solicitation, please contact John Desch at john.desch@dot.gov.

ATTENTION: Minority, Women-owned, and Disadvantaged Business Enterprises (DBEs)! The Department of Transportation (DOT), Short-Term Lending Program (STLP) offers working capital financing in the form of lines of credit to finance accounts receivable for transportation related contracts. Maximum line of credit is $750,000 with interest rates are tied to the prime rate (as published in the Wall Street Journal) on the first of each calendar month plus two points. For further information, call (800) 532-1169. Internet address: http://osdbuweb.dot.gov.