Weapons Testing at Aberdeen Proving Ground (click to view larger)
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…
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.
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.
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)
During the 1960s, the Newport Chemical Depot (NECD) in Indiana produced the nerve agent VX until a unilateral decree halted American (but not Soviet) production and transportation of all chemical weapons. In the aftermath of 9/11, the US Department of Defense re-evaluated their chemical weapons disposal program, looking at where they might accelerate destruction of the USA’s stockpile in order to remove potential targets.
The U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency has a number of storage and disposal sites, 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. This post covers the still-ongoing work at Newport, Indiana. The following is a list of the prime contractors at each CMA disposal site:
The Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Southeast in Jacksonville, FL has issued several indefinite-delivery/ indefinite-quantity, multiple award, design-build construction contracts for general building type projects at Naval Station, Guantanamo Bay. Each contract consists of a base year and 4 option years, for a maximum of 60 months, or a maximum value of $50 million for all contracts, whichever comes first. Each contract comes with a guaranteed minimum of $10,000, a normal procedure that helps to defray the expenses of bidding and preparing to execute contracts of this type. Expected completion date is May 2009, or May 2013, with all options exercised; contract funds will expire at the end of the current fiscal year.
Work to be performed is for general building type projects (new construction, renovation, alteration, and repair of facilities and infrastructure, roofing, demolition, and routine renovation) including but not limited to: 1) aviation and aircraft facilities, 2) marine facilities, 3) barracks and personnel housing facilities, 4) administrative facilities, 5) warehouses and supply facilities, 6) training facilities, 7) personnel support and service facilities, 8) security level facilities, 9) abatement and handling of hazardous/ regulated materials.
The basic contract was competitively procured via the Navy Electronic Commerce Online website, with 5 proposals received. Winners include:
Naval Base Kitsap is one of the homes for the USA’s fleet of Trident nuclear missile submarines; the Strategic Weapons Facility Pacific stores both propellant and nuclear warheads. One report claims that this location has the highest concentration of nuclear warheads in the USA with more than 2,300 warheads, about half of which are sailing aboard America’s Pacific fleet of ballistic-missile submarines at any given time.
A set of contracts begun in 2008 aim to make improvements to this facility. They aren’t cheap, but one can argue that they’re worth it…
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Baltimore MD has given John C. Gremberg Co., Inc in Rockville, MD a $27.1 million firm-fixed price contract to build a new three level steel and concrete steam sterilization plan that will have the capacity to decontaminate 126,000 gallons per-day of liquid bio-waste. Work will be performed at Fort Detrick, MD and is expected to be complete by April 30/11 (W912DR-08-C-0016).
Global Investment Recovery in Tampa, FL won a maximum $10.9 million firm-fixed-price, indefinite delivery/ indefinite quantity, total set aside contract with an 18 month base and 3 more 12-month options for “electronic equipment de-manufacturing services.” The firm recycles electronics, extracting metals from circuit boards and also providing services like total destruction of disk drives.
Work will be performed in Tampa, FL; Reno, NV, and Salley, SC; and the date of performance completion is February 19, 2009. There were 7 responses to the original proposal by the Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service (DRMS) in Battle Creek, MI (SP4410-07-D-1007). Which shouldn’t be surprising, as the US EPA named 7 providers in December 2004 for its Recycling Electronics and Asset Disposition with a Government Wide Acquisition Contract, in order to help federal agencies meet requirements of Executive Order #13101, “Greening the Government through Waste Prevention, Recycling, and Acquisition.”
Parsons Infrastructure & Technology Group in Pasadena, CA received a $154.3 million increment as part of a $1.04 billion cost-plus-award-fee contract for continued chemical agency neutralization operations leading to the closure of the Newport Chemical Agent Disposal Facility, IN. Work is expected to be complete by May 31, 2009. There were 32 bids solicited on March 9, 1998, and 2 bids were received by the U.S. Army Sustainment Command in Rock Island, IL (DAAA09-99-C-0016).
