A Bechtel-led joint venture filed a protest Tuesday with the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) over the December award of a potential 10-year, $10-billion cleanup contract at the Hanford Site in Washington state.
The Project W Restoration partnership is led by Bechtel National, and the other members of the venture are Tetra Tech and EnergySolutions, an industry source said Wednesday.
The notice on the GAO website does not provide details on the protest, but sets an April 30 deadline for a decision.
Contract recipient Central Plateau Cleanup Co. is a team comprised of AECOM, Fluor, and Atkins. There are believed to have bbeen three bidders on the contract awarded Dec. 12.
The new Central Plateau contract includes ensuring safe operations for the Hanford Richland Operations Office, deactivation and demolition of facilities, remediation of waste sites, preventing contamination of the Columbia River, and preparing documents for regulators such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The current $6.4 billion contract, which dates to October 2008, is held by Jacobs subsidiary CH2M, now working under a one-year extension that could keep it around through September. A clause in the existing deal allows the government to end the CH2M contract following a 60-day transition period.
Debriefs on the Central Plateau contract took place last week in Richland, Wash.
Both contracts awarded last month for operations at Hanford are now the subject of bid protests.
A group led by Huntington Ingalls Industries on Jan. 13 protested the potential 10-year, $4 billion support services contract awarded Dec. 5 to a Leidos-led team. Leidos is also the lead partner in the incumbent team providing security, road upkeep, information technology, and a variety of other landlord-type services at Hanford.
