The Department of Energy is officially acknowledging that the Savannah River Site Salt Waste Processing Facility is set to breech its current project baseline, downgrading the project to “red” status—the lowest in its project management scale—in the latest version of the DOE Office of Engineering and Construction Management monthly project scorecard, released late last week. The downgrade in rating from “yellow” to “red” comes shortly after project contractor Parsons submitted a revised estimate-at-completion for the project that reportedly includes a $400 million increase to the SWPF’s current price tag of approximately $1.34 billion. The increase is believed to be largely tied to the lengthy delays Parsons has experienced in delivery of a key component of the facility—a set of 10 large vessels. Both DOE and Parsons have largely declined to comment on the details of the new estimate-at-completion, though, saying it must first undergo a review by the Department. The SWPF, Parsons’ lone project in DOE’s cleanup program, is a key component in the Department’s plan to empty and close Savannah River’s underground high-level waste tanks.
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