A Bechtel-led bidding team is disputing the award of a multiyear, multibillion-dollar U.S. Energy Dept. nuclear waste management contract at the Hanford site in Washington state to a rival team. It’s the second apparent losing team to do so. Its Jan. 21 bid protest to the U.S. Government Accountability Office of a $10-billion, 10-year cleanup contract for the site’s heavily contaminated central plateau follows a Jan. 13 protest by a team led by nuclear services firm Huntington Ingalls of a $4-billion, five-year contract for site services. Both protests dispute December DOE awards, but neither GAO nor the firms will disclose why. The agency will rule in 30 days whether to accept the protests, and by April 30 on their merits.
Project W. Restoration, the Bechtel team whose other members were not disclosed, is challenging the contract award to a team led by AECOM Management Services that includes Fluor and Atkins units. The contract replaces one set to expire in September held for 12 years, with two extensions, by Jacobs’ subsidiary CH2M.