A Bechtel affiliate underbid a rival, the Huntington Ingalls Industries-led National TRU Solutions, by about $14 million for 15 months of work as prime contractor of the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M., according to a decision made public Tuesday.
Bechtel’s Tularosa Basin Range Services doing business as Salado Isolation Mining Contractors bid a little more than $153 million for the transition and first year of performance at DOE’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), according to the public decision released Tuesday by the Government Accountability Office.
By contrast, National TRU Solutions, which also includes Atkins, bid more than $167 million. Salado, which includes Los Alamos Technical Associates as a New Mexico-based small business teaming subcontractor, has started its transition and could take over from incumbent Nuclear Waste Partnership in early February.
DOE awarded Salado the new WIPP contract, worth up to $3 billion over 10 years, in July.
The Government Accountability Office last week denied bid protests filed by losing bidders National TRU Solutions and the Westinghouse-led Carlsbad Operations Alliance. The written decisions are not made public until any confidential business data is deleted from the document.
In addition to being less expensive than National TRU Solutions, Salado’s key personnel were rated “outstanding” while National TRU Solutions was deemed “good” by DOE’s site selection authority. Both teams were considered to have “satisfactory” past performance.
National TRU Solutions did have the better management approach, rated “outstanding,” compared with Salado’s rating of “good.”
DOE concluded the Bechtel affiliate’s proposal represented the best value to the agency among the five bidder teams.
WIPP is the nation’s only deep-underground disposal site for defense-related transuranic waste.
