A heavy equipment accident last summer indicates the prime contractor for the Energy Department’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, N.M., needs to strengthen its safety oversight of subcontractors, according to a March 4 enforcement letter from DOE’s Office of Enterprise Assessments (EA).
In July 2019, a backhoe operated by an employee for subcontractor Granite Construction flipped onto its side while moving a 2,100-pound roll of Geofabric. The subcontractor is doing work for WIPP on the North Access Bypass Road Project.
While Nuclear Waste Partnership investigated the accident, it did not satisfactorily evaluate its own safety management, the enforcement letter says.
The Enterprise Assessments office said the backhoe was not the proper equipment to move the material based on the subcontractor’s job hazards analysis. Granite Construction also carried out the lift without establishing a plan that would have considered issues such as load stability and ground conditions.
The accident is significant because of the potential for serious injury, according to the EA Office of Enforcement. The driver employed by Granite Construction was not hurt in the accident.
Nuclear Waste Partnership has a 10-year, $2.4 billion contract to run WIPP through September 2022. President and Project Manager Sean Dunagan told Weapons Complex Monitor on Monday that NWP has worked with Granite Construction since the accident to implement safety improvements.
The WIPP prime contractor put together an oversight plan for Granite construction and required the subcontractor to implement a corrective action plan. Nuclear Waste Partnership also said in a statement that it assigned more safety personnel to the road bypass project.
