The Energy Department indicated May 7 it has made another revision to the request for proposals (RFP) package for the Outfall 200 Mercury Treatment Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn.
This latest amendment concerns the level of experience needed for the contractor installing micropiles” at the site for the mercury treatment plant. Micropiles are piles driven into the ground to help support a building’s foundation. The revision adds a qualification saying the micropile contractor have five years of experience.
“The micropile contractor shall have a minimum of 5 years of successful experience on 10 projects of micropile design and installation in karstic limestone and dolomite bedrock with variable resistance to weathering resulting in cracks, voids, and irregular surfaces, creating the karstic topography,” according to the revision. The DOE document retains prior language saying the contractor should be “fully experienced in all aspects of micropile design and construction” and be able to carry out the contract.
This was the second revision issued by DOE. In the prior one on April 24, the department extended the RFP deadline two weeks to May 21. The Energy Department said May 7 it does not anticipate making any more amendments to the RFP.
The Energy Department has said previously it could award a contract, worth up to $250 million, by the end of August, with an eye toward starting operation of the Mercury Treatment Facility in 2022. The facility is meant to treat contaminated water before it drifts from the storm sewer at the Y-12 National Security Complex to East Fork Poplar Creek.
Nuclear weapons research in the 1950s and 1960s resulted in mercury contamination in buildings, soils and water at the Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee.
