Bechtel National received ratings of “good” for its work at the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant in the second half of 2014, according to an award fee scorecard the Department of Energy issued late last week. The scorecard provides a more detailed look at how DOE assessed BNI’s work during the second half of last year, for which the contractor earned 65 percent of the award fee available for the six-month period, or $4.095 million out of an available $6.3 million. BNI received the “good” ratings in the areas of project management and cost performance.
Within the area of project management, BNI did the best in the objective of self-analysis and discovery of issues, for which the contractor received 87 percent of the available fee, or $1,096,200 out of an available $1.26 million. “There was a significant improvement in transparency in virtually all areas, which provided ORP a better understanding of emerging issues and input into BNI issue resolution. Issues self-identification continued through project issues evaluation reporting (PIER), resulting in quicker issue resolution. Eighty-three percent of issues were self-identified,” the scorecard says. It also notes, though, “Engagement with ORP during the self-assessment process is not maturing as fast as expected.”
DOE gave BNI 75 percent of the available fee tied to environmental, safety and health, or $945,000 out of an available $1.26 million; but only 50 percent of the fee tied to quality assurance, or $630,000 out of an available $1.26 million. “Safety performance continues to be very good for a project of this size and complexity,” the scorecard says. BNI received 66 percent of the available fee tied to project leadership and management, or $831,600 out of $1.26 million; but only 47 percent of the fee tied to technical issue resolution, or $592,200 out of $1.26 million. “BNI initiated timely organization and commencement of the Direct-Feed Low-Activity Waste (DFLAW) conceptual design effort, which is proceeding as planned despite resource constraints,” the scorecard notes.
In a message to employees, Bechtel National Project Director Peggy McCullough noted that BNI has been earning “steadily increasing” performance scores. “Your attention to safety and quality is clearly evident in ORP’s evaluation of our performance,” McCullough said. “Our ability to continue to listen to our customer, understand their needs, and act upon their feedback is critical to meeting the mission. … The project is on the right track to safely deliver a quality plant to our customer.”
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