AECOM is still awaiting resolution of a $103 million claim filed against the Department of Energy in December 2014 in connection with the changed scope of cleanup at the Separations Process Research Unit in upstate New York.
The Los Angeles-based engineering and infrastructure company noted the unresolved claim in its annual report, released on Jan. 19: AECOM “can provide no certainty that it will recover the claims submitted against the DOE in December 2014.”
The case, currently in alternate dispute resolution, involves how the contractor and DOE should divvy up responsibility for extra cleanup expenses caused in part by Hurricane Irene in 2011. “Due to unanticipated requirements and permitting delays by federal and state agencies, as well as delays and related ground stabilization activities caused by Hurricane Irene in 2011,” AECOM said the extra expense should not be subject to the contract’s cost cap.
The Energy Department, in its fiscal 2018 budget request, noted that a contract modification in 2012 featured a cost cap above which the federal government would fund only expenses “attributable to government actions.” The federal agency still has responsibility for funding hillside stabilization as a result of major storms in recent years, according to the budget request.
The budget document also said in early 2013 the contractor implemented a “a slower rate of progress” in cleanup than what had been agreed upon before.
AECOM inherited the work through its 2014 purchase of URS Corp. Washington Group International, an affiliate of URS, signed a $145 million cost-reimbursable task order with DOE in 2007 for deactivation, demolition, and cleanup at the Cold War facility used in the 1950s for research into the chemical separation of plutonium.
AECOM asserts the $103 million is outside the scope of a contract modification URS received after a 2010 radiation incident at SPRU. The price has escalated substantially from a decade ago when it was estimated the project could cost $67 million and be finished in 2011. Completion is now expected this year and some projections have put the cost near $400 million.
In August 2016, the Energy Department signed an agreement with C2G International, a firm involved in dispute resolution, to assist it with contract claims brought in connection with SPRU delays. The current status of the dispute was unclear at press time.
DOE and AECOM officials could not immediately be reached for additional comment.
