LOUISVILLE, Ky. – In approximately four hours, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Louisville District awarded more than $10 million in contracts for remedial work at Ravenna Army Ammunition Plant (RVAAP) in Ravenna, Ohio March 31.
“We awarded virtually all of the contracts for the whole year by March,” said Glen Beckham, Louisville District project manager. In total, nine contracts were awarded by March. “We’ve never awarded that much in the first and second quarter. We scoped and issued requests for proposals for the whole program, which was around $24 million. By the end of March, Army Environmental Command provided $17.5 million, and of that, contracting awarded $10.7 million in a matter of about four hours. In the history of Ravenna, since 1994, we never had that much work. That’s 92 percent of the Installation Restoration Program and 43 percent of the entire environmental program.”
RVAAP is one of the Louisville District’s Installation Restoration Program projects. The program cleans up locations in use by federal government agencies. Portions of the site are currently being utilized as a training facility for the Ohio Army National Guard called Camp Ravenna, and once all remediation work is complete, it is anticipated that Camp Ravenna will become Ohio’s premiere National Guard training facility.
Under a performance-based acquisition pilot program funded by the U.S. Army Environmental Command (USAEC), the Louisville District is currently remediating the remaining areas at RVAAP at a streamlined pace. The program provides an accelerated approach to funding through USAEC, which in turn, allows for accelerated remediation.
“We are lucky that we have great support from Army Environmental Command,” Beckham said. “The more things we get done the way our customers want them done, the greater our chances are of being funded.”