MWH Americas in Broomfield, CO and ARGO/LRS JV in Glen Burnie, MD have joined 42 other companies in being eligible to compete for $3 billion in US Air Force environmental work.

The two companies received contracts from the US Air Force Center for Engineering and the Environment at Brooks City-Base, TX to compete for task orders to provide environmental requirements that include completion of conceptual design, construction, implementation, demolition, repair and operation and maintenance of installed systems prior to delivery to the government.

The work includes environmental remediation construction at US military facilities…

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AFSOC Combat Controllers
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The US Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) awarded 3 five-year indefinite delivery/ indefinite quantity contracts worth up to $85 million to provide advisory and assistance services to AFSOC headquarters.

The winners will compete for task orders under the Systems Engineering and Technical Assistance (SETA) IV contracts. The task orders will be for management and professional support services; studies, analyses, and evaluations; and engineering and technical services.

And the winners are…

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Not to be outdone by the US Air Force’s recent environmental contracts announcement, the US Army is paying out up $945 million in environmental remediation contracts to a number of the same firms.

The US Army Corps of Engineers awarded [pdf] shared-capacity indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contracts for worldwide environmental remediation services to 4 contractors.

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The US Army awarded a total of $8.6 million in performance-based task orders for environmental remediation services at Army facilities in the United States and Puerto Rico.

The Army has two environment remediation programs for active/operating Army installations – the Installation Restoration Program (IRP) and the Military Munitions Response Program (MMRP). The IRP is a program to identify, investigate and clean up hazardous substances, pollutants, and contaminants resulting from past US Department of Defense (DoD) operations and activities. The MMRP addresses the safety, health, and environmental issues caused by past DoD munitions-related activities. Congress established the MMRP to address unexploded ordnance, discarded military munitions and munitions constituents located at sites on other than operational ranges.

The recent Army task orders are for both types of remediation programs…

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“Go Ahead, Make My Day”
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Clark Construction Group in Bethesda, MD won a $230.7 million firm-fixed-price contract to construct a 526,255-gross-square-foot replacement facility for the US Army Medical Research Institute of Chemical Defense (USAMRICD) in the Edgewood area of Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland.

Supporting structures include medical gas utilities (O2, CO2, LN2, N2), conventional utilities (water, sewer, gas, central district chilled water, steam), electrical services (including emergency power generation), paving, walks, parking, fencing, storm drainage, communication and information systems, fire protection and alarm systems, and site improvements that include landscaping and new access drives.

USAMRICD is the US Department of Defense’s lead laboratory for the development of medical countermeasures against chemical weapons…

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MTRS: TALON IV
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In May 2005, the title “Remote Control Toys Used By Iraq Patrols,” talked about childrens’ toys being used on the front lines to look fo roadside bombs. It would appear that someone took notice, because there has since been a flurry of activity on the robotic explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) front. Meanwhile, deliveries of smaller and cheaper MARCBOTs and BomBots are underway.

DefenseLink notes in its announcements that “The increase in production quantity is due to the urgent and compelling need for units that are forward deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan.” So, what exactly is the MTRS program? DID explains, and covers the latest news and contract information for MTRS robots. Per DID convention, new items are indicated in green type.

The latest news includes another American contract to iRobot…

• MTRS: Why Send A Man to Do A Robot’s Job? (i.e. “Continue reading…”)
• MTRS: Contracts and Key Events [updated]
• MTRS’ Mini-Mes: MARCbot & BomBot
• MTRS Additional Readings & Sources
  
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Weapons Testing at
Aberdeen Proving Ground
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The U.S. Army awarded a $5.97 million performance-based task order to CH2M Hill in Englewood, CO for environmental remediation services at Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD, in support of the U.S. Army Environmental Command (USAEC).

The Aberdeen Proving Ground award is a 5-year task order that includes performing remedial investigations at 12 Military Munitions Response Program (MMRP) sites. The task order was awarded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers under the Multiple Award Military Munitions Services (MAMMS) contract (W912DR-08-R-0002) administered by the Baltimore District.

DID has more on MMRP and the Army’s performance-based acquisition approach…

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Too Hot to Handle?
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Barnhart in San Diego, CA won a $8.8 million firm-fixed-price task order (#3) under a previously awarded multiple award construction contract (N62473-08-D-8614) for design and construction of a large fire crash rescue station at Travis Air Force Base, CA. The task order also contains one unexercised option and one planned modification, which if exercised would increase the cumulative value to $10.3 million.

Barnhart will perform the work at the base in Fairfield, CA and expects to complete the facility by December 2010. For this contract, 4 proposals were received by the Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Southwest in San Diego.

DID has more on Travis AFB’s firefighters…

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Worker Safety isn’t often given much thought outside the companies who build defense technologies. The dangers may not be as obvious as those facing skyscraper construction crews, but the nature of these technologies can create challenges in their own right. The US Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has a few things to say about these situations, and many defense firms and their unions have made safety programs an internal focus.

In August 2006, Lockheed Martin received a $3.5 million contract from Boeing for LMsafelink, a product designed to keep assembly workers safe when they must work in confined spaces. LMsafelink provides a 2-way wireless voice and data link that’s connected to a central monitoring station. The system keeps tabs on the location of the person carrying it, automatically checking health status and sending alerts when a worker needs help or does not respond. Monitors can query workers for status and send alert, and in an emergency situation, responders can locate a worker and have information on what chemicals are in that space.

The system went live at Boeing’s Everett, WA facility in December 2008. It is scheduled to go active in March 2009 at the Long Beach, CA plant, and will be operational at Boeing’s Renton, WA plant in June. Lockheed Martin release.

PCAPP Map
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In May 2006, “US Chemical Demilitarization: Expansion and Update” explained the underlying structure of the U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency’s programs to safely store and dispose of chemical weapons. The CMA is responsible for a number of locations, each of which has its own prime contractor. Prime contractors hold the design, build, operation and closure portions of the contract, while subcontractors to the prime contractors vary by site. “Nerve Gas Stockpile Destruction at NECD in Newport, IN” shone a spotlight on one site’s efforts and contracts.

The U.S. Army’s Pueblo Chemical Depot in Colorado is another such site, which currently stores 2,611 tons of mustard agent contained in 155mm and 105mm artillery shells, and 4.5” mortar shells. Decontamination is supervised by the PM Assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives (ACWA), using a biochemical process rather than incineration; the CMA is still responsible for safe storage until the munitions can be decontaminated. This article discusses mustard agent’s effects and place in the history of warfare, and takes a look at the efforts underway to destroy the Pueblo stockpile between 2015-2023. An effort that recently featured a contract worth over half a billion dollars…

• Mustard Gas: A Quick Primer
• The Pueblo Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant (PCAPP)
• Contracts and Key Events
• Additional Readings
  
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