Brian Bradley
NS&D Monitor
8/28/15
The Energy Department and Bechtel National Inc. (BNI), the contractor for the Y-12 National Security Complex’s Uranium Processing Facility (UPF), late Monday afternoon released an expression of interest (EOI) for development of a 120,000-square-foot Multipurpose Fabrication Facility and a 150,000-square-foot optional adjacent warehouse facility, which would both be part of UPF, according to an announcement on FedBizOpps. DOE is asking for interested companies to respond to the EOI by Sept. 9; and after receiving responses it will conduct market research on whether construction on the facility is feasible. For that facility, DOE wants a small business to work on a fully furnished building 15 miles west of Y-12, where material fabrication and equipment testing would be conducted in support of UPF construction, although the announcement says other locations within a “reasonable distance” would be considered. The EOI says DOE would permit the contract winner to either build a new structure or convert an existing building. “After evaluating responses to the EOI, BNI will determine if an adequate number of qualified small businesses are interested to allow for a competitive Small Business Set-Aside,” the announcement states. “If so, BNI will issue a Request for Proposal (RFP) to the qualified small businesses which responded to the EOI. If it is determined a sufficient number of small businesses are not available, BNI will issue a Request for Proposal to small and large businesses.” The small business size standard is no more than 500 employees.
Officials plan for the fabrication facility to include a 100,000-square-foot high bay fabrication area equipped with two 5-ton bridge cranes with 60-foot spans, along with 20,000 square feet of furnished office space, according to the announcement. Officials also want the fabrication facility to house high bay garage doors that can allow oversized materials to move in and out of the building, and welding booths with a centralized heater system to provide welding gases. The office space would include conference rooms, “standard-sized offices,” and break/kitchen areas. UPF is part of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Uranium Infrastructure Strategy, meant to aid in transitioning out of Y-12’s aging uranium processing facility, Building 9212. Y-12 and NNSA this week did not respond to NS&D Monitor requests for comment on the fabrication facility.
The announcement comes more than a month after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released a sources sought notice for another potential UPF construction support facility. In collaboration with NNSA, USACE is aiming to determine the feasibility of building another 64,800-square-foot construction support facility at Y-12, estimated to cost between $10 and $25 million and to require about 1 1/2 years to complete, according to an announcement posted on FedBizOpps July 14. “The proposed project is for the design and construction of a three-story, weather tight, fully accessible, Construction Support Building (CSB) at the Y-12 National Security Complex,” the notice states. A government source with knowledge of the project said any contract would probably be awarded by this fall. The announcement asks interested parties to respond by July 29, and notes any resulting contract could be a set-aside, if “a reasonable number of interested small business concerns” exist.
DOE’s EOI for the fabrication facility also comes about 1 1/2 months after USACE awarded a $5.89 million contract to Emerald-A&H Joint Venture for other site infrastructure at UPF. UPF is expected to be completed by 2025.
