Re-Inventing, Relationships for Revamped Radiological Remediation - 22439

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Philadelphia District is remediating the former DuPont Chambers Works (DCW) site located in Deepwater, NJ. DCW is an operating chemical manufacturing complex, that has been producing chemicals for over 100 years. In the 1940's, the USACE Manhattan Engineer District (MED) and Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) contracted E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company (DuPont) to support the nation's atomic energy program and radiological contamination from that work still remains at the site. DCW is the only Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP) site in the Philadelphia District Area of Responsibility, thus the District had no direct experience running a FUSRAP site; however, the District has extensive experience running Cost Plus Fixed Fee (CPFF) Superfund contracts. The Project Delivery Team (PDT), which includes members from multiple Districts, embarked on this journey with a vision on how the DCW site remediation could be efficiently and effectively executed unencumbered by processes that are the current norms at other radiological sites. The PDT envisioned a system where near-live radiological field data could be mapped and visualized in near real time, providing the Remedial Action (RA) contractor with radiological data updated daily that could guide the excavation. Initial attempts at a new system were unsuccessful and the District completed the initial RA contract using standard procedures which were acceptable but did not streamline the process. After the initial RA phase was completed, an analysis was done resulting in a refined vision. When the second phase of remedial action began, the District brought on board two new major contractors Sevenson (the Remedial Action (RA) Contractor and Ramboll which is the architect/Engineer (A/E) Contractor. Both saw the utility of the vision of real time data management, processing, and visualization and were committed to revamping the radiological remediation data management system. The results of this new Digital Data Integration (DDI) system have been greater than initially envisioned culminating in the project being awarded USACE Project Delivery Team of the Year Award for 2021. This abstract is focused on management and optimization of relationships between the Government, the Designer (A/E) and Construction (RA) contractors on a large complex hazardous waste remediation project, while utilizing a DDI project system. There are several key factors necessary for a successful DDI PDT. The commitment by the Government to lead and provide the framework for the A/E and RA contractors and the Government to work together was essential. This required bypassing some of the traditional barriers that exist between A/Es and Construction contractors. The USACE is generally a conservative organization that follows traditional divisions found in most construction projects. For example, retaining A/E liability is often cited as an important reason to not have Government workers 'interfere' with A/E designs. This type of relationship 'by design' limits the interaction between A/Es and the Government and relies on A/Es to control the design process more completely. Some construction firms are wary of A/E interaction. In a traditional Design-Bid-Build relationship, the constructor has expectations (often made by the Government) to take a complete design and find a way to build it with limited A/E support. This can result in a competitive or strained relationship between an A/E and Constructor particularly when the construction contract is Firm Fixed Price (FFP). For the DCW project, the Government awarded a CPFF contract to the constructor and used task orders from an unrelated contract for the A/E. Fortunately, both the A/E and constructor had both the knowledge and the right personnel to implement a new system for this site. Both firms understood how this innovation would benefit the radiological remediation industry and wanted to be innovators. The A/E customized their existing geospatial and visualization DDI tools to match the unique needs of the DCW project, and the constructor developed innovative radiological data collection tools and found ways to implement the system in the field to facilitate on-going remediation activities. Stakeholder trust at all organizational levels was essential for this success and it was built gradually over time and reinforced with the successful implementation of every new development in the DDI system. As the system progressed, the Government gradually awarded additional work to further implement the system which is now fully operational. The success of the DCW FUSRAP project required that the Government dictate the roles and responsibilities of the A/E and constructor and that those roles be very clearly defined and maintained. Also, the Government had to be vigilant in ensuring that both parties walked a fine line in the overlap areas of A/E and Constructor, essentially enforcing an unwritten power-sharing agreement. The second and equally important key is finding Contractors that are fully committed to this approach. There is no simple way to do this, but a key component to implementing the full-scale DDI at the DCW FUSRAP project was building a true collaborative relationship between the Government, A/E and Constructor at every level of each organization. The DCW FUSRAP remediation has proven the benefits of performing a remediation following the DDI model in a collaborative contractor environment. We believe that the DDI model will become the gold standard for complex remedial projects particularly those where contamination extent is not fully defined and/or expensive to remediate. (authors)