With 25 months left to bring New Orleans’ Hurricane and Storm Damage Risk Reduction System to 100-year protection levels by a promised June 1, 2011, deadline, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has awarded 180 contracts worth $2.5 billion of the roughly 350 contracts required for the $14.3-billion program.
The Corps says it is on track, but industry representatives fear the work window is closing fast and if remaining awards aren’t made soon, it will be impossible for contractors to deliver by deadline.