Company Alleges FE&C Was Unable to Perform Work
Mike Nartker
WC Monitor
5/29/2015
Hanford cleanup contractor CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. (CHPRC) had a strong response this week to a subcontractor that has filed a lawsuit seeking damages for work on the K West Basin Annex construction project, accusing Federal Engineers and Constructors (FE&C) of being unprepared to do the job. In a countersuit filed in federal court, CHPRC accused FE&C of breaching its subcontract by “failing to perform work in a timely manner, by performing defective work, by failing to provide an adequate and/or sufficiently qualified workforce and subcontractors, by failing to provide Key Personnel and by failing to follow the required procedures under the Subcontract.” Both CHPRC and FE&C declined to comment on the countersuit this week.
FE&C won in the spring of 2012 a subcontract worth approximately $11 million to construct the K West Basin Annex, which is where the sludge currently stored at the K West basin will be pumped into a tank enclosed within a cask for transport to Hanford’s T Plant for processing prior to disposal. In its lawsuit, filed in late April, FE&C accused CHPRC of providing defective plans for the project, as well as issuing hundreds of design changes and of interfering with its sub-subcontractors. As a result, FE&C has claimed, it has experienced more than $12 million in damages for its work on the project.
CHPRC countered this week, though, by alleging that FE&C was unable to perform the work, and as result, it was forced to provide a number of its own employees to assist. “Beginning in July 2013, CH2M and FE&C executed several ‘Secondment Agreements’ … to document CH2M’s provision of its employees to bolster FE&C’s inadequate and underqualified workforce on the Project,” CHPRC’s court filing states. CHPRC also accused FE&C of failing to provide compensation for the seconded employees as required under the agreements.
