A & M recognizes that strong technical resources and personnel are necessary, but these alone are not enough to guarantee successful project performance. One of the first steps after award of a contract is the development of a management plan that recognizes the issues and concerns inherent in management and administration of the work. The plan addresses the objectives of the work effort, budgeting, delivery schedules, staffing, monitoring, planning and communication limits needed for performing the work.

Project management plans draw upon A & M's experience from past and present contracts, some requiring thousands of man-hours and performance of simultaneous multi-disciplinary work elements. The communication link is a vital element of the management plan and in part provides well-documented, concise procedures to manage project teams, consultants, and subcontractors who may be working on project tasks at different locations.

Our project management system provides clients:

• Efficiency. An efficient management plan, with clearly defined management roles and responsibilities
• Responsiveness. Quick turnaround capability when required, as well as long-term project continuity
• Capability. A project team with comprehensive, proven capabilities to perform the various technical activities required for the work
• Coordination. Clear-cut procedures for assigning and coordinating the responsibilities among members of the project team
• Quality. Work products of the highest technical quality, integrating input from multiple sources to achieve contract objectives
• Flexibility. Flexibility to respond to changes in project scope and direction
• Time/Cost Control. Adherence to proposed project schedules and budgets
• Communication. Effective internal and external communications
• QA/QC. Procedures for quality control of all work phases from data collection and analyses through documentation of final work.

The first step in the development of the project management plan is the selection of a senior staff member to serve as Project Manager (PM). Once selected, the PM analyzes the scope of work to determine the specific tasks needed to complete the contract. Depending on the size of the project, these tasks can vary from simple single actions to large efforts requiring many resources.

After the various tasks have been identified, the PM determines the resources required and assembles the project team by choosing the best-qualified member of the A & M staff to serve as task leader for each task. Hereafter, each task leader, along with other support services, consultants, and subcontractors, if any, report directly to the PM until the project is completed.

Project Manager (PM). Manage the project schedule and budget; Mobilize the resources of the project team for overall contract support to ensure responsiveness and a high-quality product; Monitor and stay abreast of all project activities; Involved on a day-to-day basis in supervision of technical, budgetary, and scheduling aspects of all work; Primary coordination responsibilities with the project team; Serve as contract liaison and primary point-of-contact with the client.

Task Leaders. Depending on the nature of the task, the task leader may be an engineer, geologist, hydrogeologist, soil scientist, environmental scientist or construction supervisor. Responsibilities: Reporting to the PM, provide technical and management support to the PM; Ensure day-to-day QA/QC for respective study and design activities; Responsible for technical quality of their work.

Support Services. Available to the project team and under the direction of the PM , to provide various support services including QA/QC, Health and Safety, laboratory, surveying, drafting, construction, etc. as needed.

Subcontractors. Reporting to the PM, to provide those services, outside A & M's scope, needed to complete the work.

The PM establishes the schedule and budget for each task by working with each task leader and considering any contractual provisions. Task and overall project schedules are developed using Microsoft® Project, project management software.

Throughout the project, progress is reported by the task leaders on an informal but regular basis to the PM for tracking against the schedule. In this way, early identification of possible schedule slippages allows the PM to redistribute resources or to call upon other resources to prevent project delays.

Monthly project progress reports are submitted by the PM to the client for timely review.

At the beginning of the project, budgets are established for each task based on projected labor hours, material, subcontractor, etc. costs. During the course of the project, costs are gathered and accumulated using A & M's automated project account reporting system. This system tracks all charges, comparing actual costs to task-to-date budgeted amounts.

For work tasks with short time schedules, weekly summaries of hours expended as well as other costs are prepared in order to track expenditures more closely. For tasks with longer schedules, this information is provided on a bi-weekly basis. This information, along with an estimate of cost to complete the task, permits compliance with virtually any tracking or reporting requirement of the project.

Over the years, A & M has developed strong quality assurance and quality control procedures. While operating within established guidelines, quality control and quality assurance procedures at A & M remain flexible so they can be tailored to fulfill the needs of individual clients and projects.

The following describes in detail our Quality Assurance and Quality Control procedures.

For specialized engineering and scientific work, we typically establish in-process quality control checks. These checks are performed under the direction of the Project Manager by quality control reviewers who are equal or greater in skill than those performing the work.

The quality control system consists of the following:

• Specific milestones are established where completed work will be independently reviewed by qualified personnel.
• The work is reviewed and the reviewers document the results by filling out checklists, entering comments on quality control comment sheets, and/or initialing original material. All written review materials include the name of the checker and the date of the review.
• The person performing the work answers any questions, resolves any problems and resubmits the work to be double checked by the quality control reviewer.
• Upon satisfactory resolution of all items of concern, the quality control reviewer signs all of the completed work. The person performing the work then commences on the next phase of the project.

For interpretational or calculation work, A & M Engineering uses a 10 percent rule for quality control review, i.e., quality control reviewers independently reinterpret 10 percent of the work. If significant differences in results exist, then up to 25 percent of the work is reinterpreted. If significant differences still exist, the quality control reviewer, the person performing the work, and the technical manager research the reasons for the differences and determine appropriate resolutions before any additional work is done.

Human health and safety are of paramount concern to A & M. Environmental investigation, remediation, and construction inherently involve risk of accidents and exposure to hazardous materials. A & M exerts every effort possible to eliminate or minimize these risks.

A & M's Corporate Health and Safety Program serves as the basic plan to ensure the health and safety of all workers and others who may be involved with any project we undertake. The program is administered by our Health and Safety Specialist and meets all requirements of OSHA standard 29 CFR 1910.120, 29 CFR 1926 and all 49 CFR transportation requirements.

Each major project is assigned a Health and Safety Officer (HSO) who prepares a site specific health and safety plan. The HSO is responsible for monitoring all work to ensure that appropriate safety precautions are followed at all times. The HSO has authority to halt work if health and safety infractions are observed and not immediately corrected. If a client has a health and safety program which differs from A & M's, those provisions are incorporated into the site specific health and safety plan. In no case, however, will the resulting site specific health and safety plan be less stringent than required by A & M's Corporate Health and Safety Program.

A & M's outstanding safety record is the result of employee training and good supervision. All A & M professional employees are Certified Hazardous Waste Operators and Supervisors and have undergone the OSHA 40 hour Hazardous Waste Operator training course and the additional eight hour Hazardous Waste Supervisor training as described in 29 CFR 1910.120. All A & M construction employees and have undergone the OSHA 40 hour Hazardous Waste Operator training course and the additional eight hour Hazardous Waste Supervisor training as described in 29 CFR 1910.120. All A & M construction employees undergo the 40 hour training which qualifies them as Certified Hazardous Waste Operators. All A & M professional and construction employees are recertified annually by attending an eight hour refresher course in the use of protective equipment and safely handling hazardous materials.

All A & M subcontractors are required to meet the same hazardous waste training as A & M pesonnel when working on hazardous waste projects.

A & M provides all employees with the necessary protective equipment appropriate to the level of hazard which may be encountered. Proper use of this equipment is part of the certification and recertification training.

Compliance with ALL applicable regulations is an essential part of any environmental project. Such projects are among the most highly regulated of all activities. Federal, State, and Local agencies all have extensive, complex regulations regarding the design, permitting, remediation and/or construction, and on-going operation or closure of any site. Not only are the regulations extensive and complex; but they are constantly being revised and new ones added.

A & M's environmental professionals have developed great expertise in regulatory compliance, and they constantly monitor regulatory actions to keep their expertise current. This careful attention to detail has resulted in good working relationships with key regulatory personnel and minimizes the cost and time required to obtain permits and approvals.