After a delay of more than a year, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Tuesday gave Jacobs Field Services North America the go-ahead to begin cleanup at the Shallow Land Disposal Area near Pittsburgh.

The Army Corps awarded the $350 million radiological remediation contract to the Jacobs subsidiary in April 2017, then put it on hold following protests from one or more other bidders. In August 2017, the Army branch agreed to reassess all the bids on the project. After an extended process, it determined Jacobs still provides the best value, according to a press release from the USACE Pittsburgh District.

“We believe we have addressed the concerns and the issues that were raised by the protesting contractor,” Army Corps Pittsburgh District spokesman Jeff Hawk said Wednesday.

The stop-work order was formally terminated on Tuesday and Jacobs will begin developing the work plan for Shallow Land. That might involve a year of work covering development of the site safety protocol; site and security activities; material removal, storage, and transport operations; staffing needs; emergency response; and oversight.

That would be followed by infrastructure upgrades starting around the middle of 2020, assuming the work plan is ready, funding is appropriated, and weather allows. Actual cleanup would begin about a year later.

The project, carried out under the Army Corps’ Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP), involves cleanup of 21,300 cubic yards of soil, debris, and other radiological waste spread over 44 acres in Parks Township from work under contracts for the Atomic Energy Commission, largely for fuel for nuclear submarines and power plants.

Waste removal had been anticipated before the contract protest to begin next year and last up to a decade. The protest delayed work by about 14 months, Hawk said.