An EM team was recently honored with the Secretary of Energy’s Appreciation Award for its professional expertise and pursuit of project management excellence.
The award recognizes the Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center’s (EMCBC) Office of Cost Estimating, which serves as DOE’s Cost Estimating Center of Excellence, for exceptional support to DOE and its Office of Project Management by providing sound cost estimating, schedule analysis and risk assessment support for multiple capital asset project reviews.
"The team members from EMCBC performed exceptionally well under unique circumstances and met all required timelines," Paul Bosco, director of the Office of Project Management, said in a memo to Secretary Jennifer Granholm. "I have received feedback from each of my review team leads regarding the support received from the Office of Cost Estimating personnel, and each has specifically praised the work of the EMCBC staff, and they look forward to working with these Office of Cost Estimating professionals again."
The Office of Cost Estimating personnel recognized for the award include Marwood A. Moe, assistant director; Libya K. Binford, cost estimator; Kevin J. Barry, lead cost estimator; Kalid B. Williams, management analyst; Chad M. Ritter, cost estimator; Joseph E. Bower, cost estimator, Matthew D. Birck, management analyst; Michael L. Mills, senior cost estimator; Steve J. Olszewski, senior cost engineer; R. Mark Harry, cost estimator; J. Mark Wright, cost estimator; Bruce W. Hemphill, cost estimator; and Ronald J. Wiechmann, cost estimator.
The Office of Cost Estimating has a long history of supporting the Office of Project Management with subject-matter experts in cost estimating, scheduling and other work.
The Office of Project Management, which nominated the Office of Cost Estimating for the award, avoided more than $350,000 in contract support costs by enlisting seven subject-matter experts from the behind-the-scenes team at EMCBC to serve in crucial review positions over the past 16 months.
Those experts oversaw 13 critical review areas that helped advance DOE projects, including EM’s Main Plant Process Building demolition project at the West Valley Demonstration Project in New York state and the Saltstone Disposal Units 10-12 project at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. Those mega-volume units support the mission to remove and treat all remaining high-level waste stored at the site.
The Office of Project Management’s team leads for the reviews lauded the Office of Cost Estimating staff’s support and expertise, saying they provided credible, well-documented, accurate and comprehensive cost estimates and schedule analysis, following the Government Accountability Office’s cost estimating and schedule guide best practices. The staff consistently performed in a highly impressive manner while meeting all deadlines and maintaining the highest quality of analysis, according to the award citation.
