Staff Reports
WC Monitor
10/16/2015
DOE EM Prepares for New Hanford Site Contracts
The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management is taking steps to issue new contracts for cleanup and infrastructure and services work at the Hanford Site in Washington state, according to a press release issued on Thursday.
The Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center released a sources sought/request for information for companies “with specialized capabilities necessary to successfully perform all or a portion of the elements of scope for a potential upcoming competitive … procurement(s) for the environmental cleanup projects and Hanford Site infrastructure and services at the Richland Operations Office (RL),” the release says. EM indicated the contracts would be issued after fiscal 2018, and that the type and lengths of the contracts had not yet been decided.
Two Hanford Site tours have been scheduled for Nov. 17 for interested companies, followed by one-on-one informational meetings from Nov. 18-20. “DOE is seeking feedback from interested parties regarding options for innovative approaches for the performance of scope elements, as well as insight into potential contracting alternatives to achieve the EM goals for the remaining environmental cleanup projects and Hanford Site infrastructure and services at RL,” the release says.
The office cautioned that the sources sought/RFI was solely for market research and that no proposals are requested at this time.
The full announcement and sources sought document can be found here.
WCH Finalist for Annual Program Mgmt. Award
Washington Closure Hanford, the Hanford river corridor contractor, was among the finalists for the Project Management Institute’s 2015 Project of the Year. It was honored on Oct. 10 ahead of the institute’s Global Congress. “Tremendous progress has been made in cleaning up the Columbia River Corridor area of the Hanford Site due to WCH’s dedication to performance, safety and quality in delivering this project ahead of schedule and under budget,” said Stacy Charboneau, manager of the Department of Energy Richland Operations Office, in a statement. Washington Closure saved taxpayers $227 million “while helping to transform a toxic legacy of war into scenic beauty for future (access) to all,” the institute said in its Network magazine. The institute’s top award was given to the El Segundo Refinery Coke Drum Reliability Project, which required transporting and placing massive coke drums in the Los Angeles area. Washington Closure shares finalist status with a project to overhaul bridges in Oregon.
Washington Closure is working under a one-year extension to its original 10-year contract to clean up the 220-square-mile section of Hanford near the Columbia River. Major projects completed include removing an underground test reactor and a concrete vault used to store highly contaminated liquid waste. Each lift was approximately 2.2 million pounds. In addition, team members have isolated unexploded ordnance from a former Hanford firing range; excavated chromium-contaminated waste sites 85 feet deep, and transported more than 11 million tons of contaminated material to the Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility, which it manages. "To accomplish so much under the challenging conditions they face every day is a tribute to the project management tools and skills our workforce applied to their work every day," said Scott Sax, Washington Closure president, in a statement.
