Comments are due Sept. 17 on the draft request for proposals (RFP) for a new remediation contract potentially worth $8.3 billion for the Energy Department’s Oak Ridge Site in Tennessee.
The DOE Office of Environmental Management on Tuesday issued the draft RFP for an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract with a 10-year ordering period.
The Energy Department has repeatedly said in recent months that its procurement timelines are subject to change due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and in Tuesday’s announcement Contracting Officer LeAnn Brock said a final RFP was not expected before November.
Prospective bidders are asked to review the draft RFP and provide input on issues including potential barriers to competition and small business subcontractor requirements. Comments on the draft RFP should be emailed to [email protected].
The contract will include a 90-day transition period from the incumbent vendor, the Amentum-Jacobs joint venture URS/CH2M Hill Oak Ridge (UCOR).
The current team is finishing demolition and remediation of old structures at the East Tennessee Technology Park, the former gaseous diffusion complex at Oak Ridge, under a $3.3 billion contract that began in August 2011. The contract was set to expire July 31, but UCOR last month received an extension for up to two years that could keep it around through July 2022.
To date, DOE and its contractor crews have taken down 500 structures at ETTP and transferred 1,300 acres to local officials for economic development, remediation milestones the agency plans to celebrate in a Vision 2020 ceremony this October.
UCOR President and CEO Ken Rueter has said the contractor is starting to deploy workers to projects at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Y-12 National Security Complex, which will be the focus of the next long-term contract.
The multibillion-dollar Oak Ridge contract will be of interest to pretty much all of the major contractors in the Energy Department cleanup complex, an industry executive said by telephone Wednesday.
That is likely to include Bechtel, which is in danger of losing a major source of revenue from DOE’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), the source said. In June, the NNSA said it would not pick up remaining options held by Bechtel-led Consolidated Nuclear Security for management of Y-12 and the Pantex Plant in Texas. That contract is now set to expire in September 2021.
