Kenneth Fletcher
WC Monitor
2/7/2014
Portage earned 96 percent of its available award fee in Fiscal Year 2013—approximately $1.1 million out of $1.14 million—for its work on the Moab uranium mill tailings remediation project in Utah, according to information the Department of Energy released this week. “The contractor met the majority of performance goals and objectives for the period,” states an award fee determination scorecard for the period of Oct. 1, 2012, through Sept. 30, 2013. Portage earned a “very good” rating for project management, an “excellent” rating for tailings quantity and a “very good” rating for health and safety.
Portage has run the Moab project since the spring of 2012. The project involves the removal by train of a total of approximately 16 million tons of uranium mill tailings from a former uranium-ore processing facility near Moab, Utah, on the west bank of the Colorado River to a disposal site approximately 30 miles away in Crescent Junction, Utah. Significant achievements for FY’13 include the installation of permanent liners in containers used to transport tailings, not missing a single scheduled train, beginning shipping only two days after the winter curtailment and excavating 751,428 tons over the period, according to DOE.
Jeff Biagini, the Moab Project Director for Portage, said he is pleased with DOE’s evaluation of the contractor’s FY13 performance. “Our success on this project has been and continues to be a testament to our highly trained and dedicated work force,” he said in a statement. “Working with our partners, AMEC, Nielson Construction, and DeNuke, and partnering with DOE, the team has been able to meet project challenges and execute the contract in a safe, efficient manner. The Portage Team looks forward to another successful year.”
