LATA/Parallax Portsmouth LLC

Mabey Bridge & Shore, Inc. received news late last year that a cross-functional team of sales and operations personnel secured one of the most interesting contracts in the company's 20 year history. LATA/Parallax Portsmouth LLC, a small business joint venture between Los Alamos Technical Associates Inc. (LATA) and Parallax Inc., was awarded a multimillion dollar contract to oversee and conduct environmental remediation and waste
management activities at the DOE's 1,200 acre Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon, Ohio. LATA selected Mabey to provide the solutions to help them complete a portion of their work.
  
The Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant began operations in 1954 as part of a U.S. government expansion program for the production of enriched uranium. In May, 2001, the U.S. Government ceased uranium enrichment operations in Piketon. As a result of the plant's operations, legacy waste - primarily trichloroethene (TCE), an industrial solvent - is present in relatively high concentrations and portions of the plant site now require extensive remediation to comply with environmental regulations and protect public health.
  
LATA/Parallax Portsmouth, LLC was formed for the single purpose of providing environmental remediation, reducing soil contaminants, decommissioning contaminated facilities and disposing of waste for the United States Department of Energy at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant site. One of the principal activities here is soil decontamination, which involves excavation of the site grounds, chemically oxidizing the excavated soils by mixing them with hydrogen peroxide and other chemicals and replacing the cleaned soils back into the ground. This work will significantly reduce the concentration of TCE in the soil to help achieve cleanup of a contaiminated groundwater plume. LATA/Parallax asked Mabey to provide the shoring solution they needed to partition the property and shore the surrounding soils. A team of Mabey's best and brightest was needed to secure a job of this size and the result was the procurement and implementation of a fairly unique slide rail product called remediation slide rail. The new gear would enable the contractor to divide the work site into cells and excavate the soils in sections. 
  
Unlike traditional slide rail, the remediation system is designed to allow the contractor to proceed in multiple directions from any starting point. The multiple configurations allow for the creation of bays or cells on the site that share a common wall, ensuring that all of the contaminated soils are excavated and cleaned. Mabey's team provided this solution as the answer to LATA's challenge, and the contractor agreed. Mabey has acquired the equipment and is in the process of customizing some of it to meet LATA's needs. The equipment will be enough to create 6, 24'x42' cells at a time, but will be removed and installed as the soil is cleaned so that eventually, 82 individual cells will have been created and excavated. Each cell will reach a depth of roughly 20' and although this phase of the project is slated to run until June 30, 2010, a 3 month extension seems likely, as does the opportunity for future business on this site. Property clean-up and renovation of the site's facilities may not conclude for another 30 years, which means Mabey will remain ready to service any additional structural or excavation shoring projects that might arise. Because of the moving parts involved here, and the multiple government agencies operating in conjunction with each other, there is significant contract work involved.