By mid-July, Conti Federal Services Inc., Edison, N.J., will begin repairing jetties off the Texas coast that were damaged during Hurricane Ike as the first task order of a $495-million Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity Multiple Award Task Order Contract that was issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on March 19.

Photo: NASA

Hurricane Ike as seen from the International Space Station.

“We’ll be repairing jetties along the entire coast of Texas, from Louisiana to the Mexico border,” says Anthony LaBato, Conti’s vice president.

The corps’ IDIQ MATOC contract includes design-build and design-bid-build projects for marine- and land-based horizontal construction services across the corps’ Southwestern Division, which also includes Louisiana, Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma. The contract includes  horizontal construction such as transportation projects, pump stations, canals, dams, levees, anti-terrorism and force protection, outdoor recreation facilities, open-space improvements, and various marine-related structures.

The jetty work is being administered through the corps’ Galveston District. “Our company is excited about working with [the Galveston District],” LaBato says.

Conti will manage the contract through its recently established New Orleans Gulf Coast regional office, headed by LaBato. “Being a local firm is important to successfully working with USACE as well as supporting the community,” LaBato says. “We place high priority on establishing good relationships with local vendors, subcontractors and small businesses that play a major role in project delivery.”

Conti operates in diverse markets including infrastructure development, homeland security, industrial, fossil power, environmental remediation and renewable energy for federal, public and  private clients. About 40% of the firm’s work is corps-related, LaBato says. The company is well-versed in corps procedures and contracting methods, he adds.

Conti has had a presence in the Gulf Coast area since Hurricane Katrina in 2005, performing household hazardous clean-up and levee work for the corps. Conti’s New Orleans office is centrally located to manage work throughout the Gulf Coast, and the contractor hopes to win other corps contracts as part of the almost $15 billion program to bring the New Orleans hurricane system to 100-year levels by June 2011.