United Cleanup of Oak Ridge LLC (UCOR) teamed with Sevenson to perform sediment remediation in the EU-19 mudflat at East Tennessee Technology Park (ETTP), Oak Ridge, TN as part of a Time-Critical Removal Action. The mudflat is located at the end of a ditch that empties into Poplar Creek that was contaminated during past site operations. Access to the mudflat was not possible from the land side of EU-19 without removing an acre of wooded creek bank and up to 8,000 cubic yards of soil. Given the difficulty of accessing the site, UCOR decided to engage SES (Amentum’s Protégé) because of our specialty environmental dredging experience to perform remediation from a floating work platform positioned in Poplar Creek.
“This was a first-of-a-kind operation for UCOR, so over a three-month period we evaluated all work hazards, in detail, to ensure our combined teams had a safe, successful, compliant and efficient cleanup effort.… This is a prime example of where UCOR reached out to an industry leader, Sevenson, to bring a new tool into our toolbox that was used for this cleanup and on future task orders.” said UCOR Operational Excellence Manager and Deputy Chief Operating Officer Joe Aylor.
SES is an industry specialist in this type of work. UCOR provided work planning/control, QA, safety, hoisting & rigging oversight, and waste management. The work planning process was performed from November 2022 to early February 2023. As this was a first-of-a-kind operation for UCOR, the hazards and applied processes were evaluated in detail to ensure successful, compliant, and efficient performance.
Mobilization of SES equipment started in late February and finished with the arrival of the floating work platform in early March. The work platform was assembled in Poplar Creek with a 225-ton crane at a UCOR-designed-and-constructed crane pad/assembly area in EU-13. After installing contamination controls, a small excavator and eight B25 boxes were loaded on the work platform and an SES push boat moved the work platform into position at the mudflat.
Excavation, soil packaging, and site restoration of the mudflat soils was completed and the B25 containers of soil were removed from the work platform for characterization and disposal by UCOR. An impermeable barrier was installed over the excavated area and the entire area covered in riprap.