Resilience
Corps Picks Firms for $7B Contract, Awards First Task Order to Kiewit
Workers on another contract for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Galveston District's Port Arthur Project place rebar framework for fronting protection on a pump station on the Port Arthur levee.
Photo by Bobby Petty/U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Galveston District
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Galveston District has selected 15 firms to compete for jobs on a multiple award task order contract worth up to $7 billion. Officials also awarded the first $403.9-million order to Kiewit U.S. Contractors Co. for work on a Gulf Coast flood protection project in Port Arthur, Texas.
Work locations under the contract will be determined with each order, but Corps officials said the multiple-award structure provides a more efficient process to deliver large civil infrastructure projects along the Texas coast.
The agency received 35 submissions for contracts, according to an award notice. Selected firms include Gideon Contracting LLC; Randy Kinder Excavating Inc.; Central Environmental Inc.; Tybe-Garney Federal JV LLC; Ahtna-Great Lakes E&I JV; Flatiron Dragados Constructors Inc.; Posillico Civil Inc. Coastal Environmental Group Inc., a JV; Webber LLC; Gulf Coast Builders LLP; Gulf Coast Constructors LLC; Barnard Construction Co. Inc.; Galveston, SLSCO Ltd.; Kiewit U.S. Contractors Co.; Archer Western Construction LLC; and Maloney-Odin, a joint venture.
They are eligible to compete for task orders on the hybrid contract with a mix of firm-fixed-price, fixed-price-incentive and fixed-price with economic-price-adjustment task orders for design-build and design-bid-build horizontal construction, according to the Corps.
Work awarded under the contract is estimated to complete by April 2033.
Port Arthur Project First Up
The contract’s seed award is a design-build order for work on the Corps’ Port Arthur Project in Port Arthur, Texas, which is part of its larger Sabine Pass to Galveston Bay Coastal Storm Risk Management Project.
“This award, which represents the largest construction contract to date for the project, is an important step in the long-term effort to improve flood protection for the Port Arthur area,” said Coalter Baker, executive director of the Texas Gulf Coast Protection District, in a statement. The district and the Texas General Land Office are helping to fund the approximately 35% local portion of the project from Jefferson County Drainage District No. 7.
The Port Arthur project is upgrading hurricane protection infrastructure built between the 1960s and the 1980s, according to the Corps. It involves replacing more than 13 miles of earthen levees, construction or reconstruction of 5 miles of floodwall and associated structures, construction of 2.2 miles of new levee, fronting protection at 10 pumping stations, replacement of 21 road and railroad closure structures and erosion protection improvements.
The Corps has planned to build the Port Arthur project via eight contracts, with.work set to be completed in 2033.
Kiewit’s piece of the project under the newly awarded task order includes replacement of 9,525 ft of floodwall, 2,300 ft of levee raises, four levee-floodwall tie-ins and fronting protection at three pump stations, according to the Corps. Its work is expected to start in the summer of 2026 and take about three-and-a-half years to complete. Company representatives did not immediately respond to inquiries about the project.
“This investment improves those defenses to provide more resilience and protection to further safeguard Texans from the growing threat of storm surge and flooding,” said Col. Rhett Blackmon, commander of the Corps’ Galveston District, in a statement.
The project also focuses on areas around Freeport and Orange County, Texas.
