Department of Energy Major Construction Projects Need a Consistent Approach for Assessing Technology Readiness to Help Avoid Cost Increases and Delays

Abstract

Of the 12 DOE major projects GAO reviewed, 9 exceeded their original cost or schedule estimates, principally because of ineffective DOE project oversight and poor contractor management. Specifically, 8 of the 12 projects experienced cost increases ranging from $79.0 million to $7.9 billion, and 9of the 12 projects were behind schedule by 9 months to more than 11 years. Project oversight problems included, among other things, inadequate systems for measuring contractor performance, approval of construction activities before final designs were sufficiently complete, ineffective project reviews, and insufficient DOE staffing. Furthermore, contractors poorly managed the development and integration of the technology used in the projects by, among other things, not accurately anticipating the cost and time that would be required to carry out the highly complex tasks involved.

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 27, 2007
Accession Number
AD1179441

Entities

People

  • Gene Aloise

Organizations

  • United States Government Accountability Office

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Counter WMD
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acquisition
  • Business Administration
  • Civil Engineering
  • Construction
  • Cost Estimates
  • Department Of Defense
  • Engineering
  • Environment
  • Environmental Restoration And Remediation
  • Fabrication
  • Light Sources
  • Materials
  • Materials Laboratories
  • Materials Processing
  • Materials Science
  • Materials Testing
  • Nuclear Materials
  • Project Management
  • Research Facilities
  • Test And Evaluation
  • United States
  • United States Government

Readers

  • Defense Acquisition Program Management
  • Life Cycle Cost Analysis
  • Systems Analysis and Design