Mat Boat Sources Sought Notice
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Marine Design Center (MDC) will soon be releasing a sources sought notice for the construction of the Mat Boat, a 188 x 74 x 10-ftl. deck barge, for the Mat Sinking Unit (MSU) located on the Mississippi River. The barge is to be built to American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) Rules for Service on Rivers and Intracoastal Waterways. The sources sought notice is only for the construction of the barge, shown in Figure B, and not for the final product which incorporates a government furnished robotics package shown in Figure A. The sources sought notice will be released on the FedBizOpps.gov website.
In 2015, Bristol Harbor Group, Inc. (BHGI) was tasked through an Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract with the USACE, to design, size, and specify details for the new Mat Boat, Mat Assembly Process and Mat Placement Process. BHGI first visited the MSU to gain a better understanding of its current operations. The Mat Sinking Unit’s purpose is to lay a protective overcoat of concrete mats to shield the riverbank from erosion and sloughing. USACE’s goal is to minimize the environmental impact and improve the safety of USACE’s personnel who operate the MSU by incorporating automated technology.
In 2017, BHGI was subcontracted by SIA Solutions, LLC (SIA) to execute the detailed design of the Mat Boat. BHGI has been coordinating with the National Robotics Engineering Center (NREC) at Carnegie Mellon University, who is responsible for the design and engineering of the robotic system on the Mat Boat, to ensure that the structure for the mat deck can incorporate the robotics they are designing and the weights are updated accordingly.