The U.S. Energy Department and its prime contractor for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico on Wednesday announced a $75 million award for a subcontractor to build a new underground utility shaft.
The contract went to Harrison Western-Shaft Sinkers Joint Venture, the DOE Carlsbad Field Office and AECOM-led Nuclear Waste Partnership said in a press release. The agency and its vendor could not immediately be reached for details on the subcontractor.
Colorado-based Harrison Western provides tunneling, underground mine development, mine remediation, and industrial construction. An Internet search also indicates a firm called Shaft Sinkers is the mining operations company for South Africa-based United Mining Services.
“This is an extremely important day for us,” said NWP President and Project Manager Bruce Covert in the release. “After an exhaustive and thorough procurement process, we believe the Harrison Western joint venture is the right contractor to undertake this important project.”
The shaft should be finished in 2022 and be 26-feet wide and extend 2,275 feet below ground. The contract also calls for mining two access drifts, or tunnels, to link the shaft with the existing WIPP underground. By connecting with new equipment on the surface the new shaft can adjust the intake fan and exhaust fan flow. It will also provide a second point of access for workers and materials into the transuranic waste disposal site.
The utility shaft is part of of the Safety Significant Confinement Ventilation System (SSCVS), which should provide roughly 540,000 cubic feet per minute (cfm) of air to the underground, up from the present level of 170,000 cfm.
Work on the primary ventilation infrastructure started last summer under a $135 million contract awarded to Critical Applications Alliance (CAA), comprised of Christensen Building Group and Kilgore Industries, both of Houston, Texas.
