The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) has begun procurement for a contractor to help prepare for a major cleanup job at the Niagara Falls Storage Site in New York state under the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP).
The Army branch ultimately intends to hire an architectural and engineering services provider for the removal, partial treatment, and off-site disposal of radiologically and chemically contaminated waste at the site’s Interim Waste Containment Structure.
“The A-E will assist the USACE by developing plans to implement the work. The A-E will propose the work breakdown structure and sequence, ensuring that the work is performed in a logical and cost-effective manner,” according to an Aug. 13 presolicitation notice. “The A-E will propose and assist in the preparation of individual contract bid packages for future construction and remediation contracts. The A-E will assist the USACE in construction management tasks including answering contractor requests for information (RFI), change management, construction quality assurance oversight, and cost and schedule control through Earned Value Management.”
The 10-acre Interim Waste Containment Structure is one of three operable units at the site in the town of Lewiston, all of which will eventually be remediated. It holds 278,072 cubic yards of waste, including roughly 6,030 cubic yards of highly radioactive material, the notice says. That encompasses “K-65” residues that are just 1% of waste in the containment structure by volume but over 90% of the radioactive hazard, The Army Corps said. They will need to be solidified in a cement form and stabilized before they can be sent elsewhere for disposal.
A detailed synopsis, with a request for submission of architect-engineer qualifications, is due in September.
Since the 1940s, the 191-acre Niagara Falls Storage Site has held uranium ore residues and other wastes generated by the Manhattan Project to build the atomic bomb. The Interim Waste Containment Structure is an engineered landfill dating to the 1980s.
