Louis Berger continues fight for Marine Corps contract

A Marine Corps contract that supports the consolidation of facilities in Japan is under protest from the Louis Berger Group, who feels it should have been picked ahead of the Onyx of Alexandria Inc.

The $6.2 million contract is for technical and advisory support services for Okinawa Consolidation Program Management Office.

Louis Berger is the incumbent contract on the project and obviously has an incentive to hang on to the work. According to Deltek, the company won the contract in June 2013 and it is worth $3.6 million.

The United States and Japan have been working to realign and consolidate facilities and forces in Japan for at least a decade. The goal is to reach a long term solution that can sustain public support for U.S. forces in Japan. Part of the plan includes returning U.S. controlled land to the Japanese government, which means that new facilities need to be built as operations are moved and consolidated.

The Marines want on-site contract consultants that can help manage the consolidation process. The support includes community planning and construction scheduling and coordination of multiple stakeholders.

The building of new facilities, consolidation of facilities and moving personnel all have to be done while also maintaining the readiness of the forces stationed.

After running a competition, the Marines awarded a contract to Onyx, an Alexandria, Va., company that specializes in planning, architecture and information systems that support facility management, health and safety.

Louis Berger filed its first protest on June 20. The company is well-known for its engineering and architecture work but it also has does a lot of planning, program and construction management work.

The company filed a supplement to their protest July 22 in response to the Marines response to their protest. This tells me that the Marines saw nothing in Louis Berger’s protest that made them second guess their choice of Onyx.

So, this protest is most likely going through to a full GAO decision, which is expected by Sept. 28.