TEST FACILITIES REVITALIZATION PROJECT WRAPPED UP
NS&D Monitor
3/28/2014
A $48.7 million project to revitalize Sandia National Laboratories’ testing facilities was completed earlier this month, $4 million under its original budget. The Test Capabilities Revitalization Phase 2 project upgraded the lab’s 10,000-foot sled track as well as its mechanical shock, centrifuge, aerosciences, and vibro-acoustic and mass properties facilities. In all, the NNSA said approximately 26 facilities were revitalized, including four full-scale non-nuclear environmental mechanical testing facilities and a bench-scale testing facility. In a statement, the NNSA said the project created “significant enhancements of capabilities while optimizing operations efficiencies and addressing environmental, safety and health code compliance and energy conservation needs and goals.”
The project’s original baseline was $52.7 million with a scheduled completion in the fourth quarter of Fiscal Year 2013, but the baseline was revised, with the estimated cost growing to $57.8 million and the completion date being pushed back to the second quarter of 2014. The ultimate cost of the project was $9.1 million less than the revised baseline. “The successful completion of the TCR 2 project ensures that critical NNSA mission work can be accomplished,” NNSA Associate Administrator for Acquisition and Project Management Bob Raines said in a statement. “The perseverance and teamwork demonstrated by Sandia Corporation and the federal project team were colossally beneficial to the success of the project. Another project completed on time and under budget demonstrates that NNSA is on the right path towards overcoming long-standing and significant contract and project management challenges.”