PHOENIX — Installation of two major infrastructure projects at Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plan in New Mexico ended up costing about $770 million due to the pandemic, replacement of a major subcontractor and other factors, officials said here Wednesday.
The cost of the Safety Significant Confinement Ventilation System (SSCVS), renamed the Underground Ventilation System, was $485 million, according to representatives of DOE and Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) prime contractor, Bechtel-led Salado Isolation Mining Contractors, at the Waste Management Symposia.
The ventilation project was originally expected to cost no more than $310 million, said Chuck Comeau, a senior technical adviser for DOE working out of the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The final cost of the new Utility Shaft, initially expected to cost less than $200 million, ended up with a final cost of $282 million, according to his slide presentation.
Both projects came online during 2025 and are performing well, DOE and Salado representatives said during the panel. Salado came on as the new management and operations contractor for WIPP in the middle of the projects.
In addition, a major subcontractor hired to construct the ventilation project was replaced by the prior prime contractor, an Amentum-BWX Technologies team. A subsidiary of Kiewit was brought in to finish constructing the ventilation shaft.
DOE was so pleased with Salado’s completion of the infrastructure projects that it gave the Bechtel-led contractor a three-year extension, rather than two years, to its base contract, said Mindy Toothman, who moderated the Wednesday panel. Toothman is assistant manager of DOE’s National Transuranic Waste Program.