NuVision Engineering of Pittsburgh, a supplier for San Francisco-based Bechtel National on the multibillion-dollar Waste Treatment Plant (WTP) facility under construction at the Energy Department’s Hanford Site, is suing the prime in federal court for almost $2 million in costs the smaller company alleges it incurred because of delays building the enormous facility.
The equipment at issue are the power manipulators for WTP, which Bechtel ordered from NuVision in 2004, when the Pittsburgh company was known as AEA Technology Engineering Services. Power manipulators are hand-like clamps that can be affixed to the end of robotic arms so workers can remotely handle dangerous material.
NuVision’s original firm-fixed-price subcontract with Bechtel was worth just under $4 million and covered four power manipulators, a control system, and a hydraulic interface unit, court documents show.
A combination of factors, including DOE’s decision to stop work on WTP in 2012 and a flurry of change orders and tighter quality standards handed down by Bechtel, pushed the cost of the power manipulators up by about $1.5 million, according to NuVision’s complaint. On top of that went more than $200,000 in labor NuVision spent assessing its cost increases and communicating them to Bechtel in hopes of getting paid for what the company, in court documents, characterized as design changes from its prime. The total tab rose to about $1.8 million, court papers show.
The dispute wound up in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington after NuVision exhausted other methods, the company wrote in its complaint. The first of these was a request for equitable adjustment delivered to Bechtel in January 2015, according to the complaint. Bechtel acknowledged receipt of the document, but never made the requested payments to NuVision, the company alleged.
Subsequently, on Aug. 25, 2015, Bechtel ordered NuVision to stop work on the power manipulators, court documents show. In February, NuVision tried again to recoup its costs, this time by filing a claim under the Contract Disputes Act of 1978, according to the company’s complaint. When that went unanswered, the company sued.
A Bechtel spokesperson declined to comment Wednesday on pending litigation. NuVision did not immediately reply to a request for comment. No documents have been filed in the case since NuVision filed its complaint April 28.