News Releases | ARRA

River Corridor cleanup team reaches 1-million-hour safety milestone

12.07.2009

RICHLAND, Wash.—Employees and subcontractors of Washington Closure Hanford on November 30, reached one million hours worked without a lost-time accident.

It is the seventh time the Washington Closure-led River Corridor Closure Project team has reached a million-hour milestone since the project began in August 2005. It took the 1,100- member team about five months to reach the latest goal.

The River Corridor Closure Project team includes 850 Washington Closure and Eberline Services Hanford employees, and about 250 subcontractor employees. The team is responsible for protecting the Columbia River corridor at Hanford by demolishing 486 buildings, cleaning up 370 waste sites and expanding and operating the Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility at the 586-square-mile Hanford Site in southcentral Washington state.

Work on the $2.4 billion project is about half done and is scheduled to be completed by October 1, 2015.

“We’re 11 percent ahead of schedule and $133 million under budget, but more importantly, we’re doing it safely,” said Neil Brosee, president and project manager for Washington Closure.

“A good safety record is synonymous with a well-run project. We have that, and it’s because our workers are committed to working safely and ensuring their coworkers are doing the same. Our goal is safe, visible progress,” he said.

“We are getting into some especially risky and challenging cleanup work with building demolitions in the 100 and 300 areas, as well as cleanup work at waste burial grounds, such as the 618-10 Burial Ground,” Brosee said. “Construction, demolition and waste cleanup are especially hazardous activities. Nevertheless, our focus is to send everyone home at the end of each day in the same condition as when they arrived.”

The one-million-hour accomplishment included work on several projects funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The $253 million in Recovery Act work includes an upgrade and expansion of the Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility, radiological characterization of the 618-10 Burial Ground and cleanup of other Hanford waste sites.

Recovery Act-funded project employees and subcontractors have worked injury-free since the projects began in April 2009.