BECHTEL CEO VISITS HANFORD TO RALLY WTP WORKFORCE

Bechtel Corp. CEO Riley Bechtel visited Hanford yesterday in a trip intended to show Bechtel’s corporate commitment to the workers at the Waste Treatment Plant project. The visit comes as Bechtel has faced increased scrutiny over the past several weeks for its performance at the WTP, one of the Department of Energy’s largest projects. Last week, DOE issued Bechtel its lowest fee determination to date at the project—$3.1 million out of an available $6.3 million—for work performed during the first half of this year. DOE based its determination, in part, on declines seen in areas such as engineering, quality Management and procurement performance. In late August, a senior official at the DOE Office of River Protection issued a issued a scathing memorandum outlining a litany of instances where he said Bechtel National had provided “flawed” technical advice and design solutions for the project. The memo, which received national media attention, called for Bechtel to be stripped of its role as design authority for the WTP project. For its part, Bechtel National has pushed back strongly against the criticisms in the memo, saying that many of the issues raised are not new and had already been resolved by DOE and Bechtel National. Bechtel did not return calls for comment on the visit yesterday.