Work under this agreement will involve cultural and paleontological resources tasks to assist the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) in facilitating compliance with state and federal historic preservation laws, primarily the Colorado Historic Register Act (CRS 24-80.1) and Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act (36 CFR Part 800), (Section 106). These tasks include, but are not limited to: Class I literature searches, Class III archaeological inventories and survey for historic built environment resources; archaeological site recordation; historic built environment property documentation; archaeological test excavations and/or archaeological data recovery excavations; artifact or fossil specimen analyses; report preparation; curation of artifacts/specimens; and possible assistance in the development of mitigation of adverse effects to historic properties and fossil resources. This work will occur on existing or proposed properties administered by and located throughout the State of Colorado (such as within new or existing highway alignments) where construction activities or other state actions are anticipated. Tasks will be related to a variety of actions, including but not limited to state funded projects (e.g., maintenance and property management) and federally funded projects (e.g., CDOT bridge replacements and other highway improvement projects). Work will be requested of the Contractor on an as-needed basis, adhering to the pay items listed below. No amount of work will be guaranteed under the terms of the contract.
CDOT will provide a specific request to the Contractor describing the general scope and intent of the work it desires the Contractor to perform under each task order. The Contractor will be responsible for submitting a cost estimate in the form of a task order proposal to CDOT for review and approval for each issued task order/project. This estimate must clearly itemize all direct and indirect costs the Contractor anticipates will be incurred during accomplishment and completion of the project. Upon final CDOT approval of the task order proposal, CDOT will schedule a preliminary meeting between the Contractor and contract manager, to take place either at the CDOT office, virtually, or by telephone, or at the project location. Project work may or may not include work tasks for all three disciplines (archaeology, historic built environment, paleontology), either simultaneously or in any combination.
All tasks must be performed by individuals meeting the criteria established by the Secretary of the Interior’s (SOI) Professional Qualification Standards for History, Archaeology, Architectural History, or Historic Preservation (as appropriate). All work related to the evaluation of historic built environment resources (e.g., file search, field work, preparation of reports and memoranda) should be performed by an individual meeting the SOI Professional Qualification Standards for History, Architectural History, or Historic Preservation. In an effort to ensure consistency of documentation and that only qualified individuals are evaluating archaeological and built environment resources, CDOT requires the following: 1) Historians must meet the standards for Archaeology in order to be assigned to evaluate prehistoric archaeological resources; and 2) Archaeologists must meet the standards for History, Architectural History, or Historic Preservation in order to be assigned to survey and document built environment resources. In general, CDOT views its primary historic assets—highways and bridges—as historic built environment resources that should be evaluated by historians meeting the SOI standards for History, Architectural History, and Historic Preservation.