Selected for the ID/IQ contracts are teams led by Washington Group International, Boise; Perini Corp., Framingham, Mass.; and Fluor Corp., Aliso Viejo, Calif. The WGI team includes Stanley Group, Muscatine, Iowa, as lead engineer as well as U.K., Kuwaiti, Turkish and possibly Iraqi firms, says a WGI spokesman. Perini's team includes Tetra Tech, Pasadena, Calif., POWER Engineers, Willbros Group and Najad Rock Group. Fluor has Kansas City-based Black & Veatch as its lead subcontractor, along with Contrack International.

TERRITORY Contracts will cover 25 countries, but Iraq will likely be major focus. (Photo by Tom Sawyer for ENR)

The one-year contracts were awarded by the Corps' Transatlantic Program Center in Winchester, Va., but will be administered by its Gulf Regional Engineer Office, an extension of the center. The work "could involve supporting U.S. military operations, other U.S. government agencies or even friendly foreign governments under established agreements," says Joan Kibler, spokeswoman for the center. "The Corps has active contracts of this type now in Russia, Egypt and the Balkans."

Sources in Iraq say the contracts likely will involve a broad range of fast-track infrastructure repair work throughout Iraq. This could include some responsibility for maintaining key Army supply routes where security conditions permit. A contracting officer may seek proposals from any or all of the awardees for individual "task orders" or award urgent work more directly. "We have not issued any task orders" under the new contracts, Kibler says.

Lt. Col. Mark Holt, deputy commander of the U.S. Army's 130th Engineer Brigade, which is charged with maintaining the supply routes between Kuwait and the frontline divisions, has been working on involving civilian contractors in the work as soon as possible. He says the intention is to fill the long gap between close support of advancing forces and distant supply areas by engaging firms to maintain routes in areas that have been stabilized. "Contractors want to work in a secure environment, or, hopefully, even a permissive one," Holt says.

Privatizing the work would free military resources for use where security issues require them, but Holt's task order award is still subject to shifting priorities and theater level strategies. Lt. Gen. Robert Flowers, the Corps' chief of Engineers, told ENR March 26: "We will make full use of the private sector as we go forward." The Corps has set up a Field Engineering Support Team that will "help with reconnaissance, assessment and scoping," says Holt.

Corps assessment teams "will have with them the authority, if we need it, to contract to bring on the expertise that we may need," said Flowers. He noted that this could include security, restoration of basic services and repair of oil infrastructure. "Some of that we will accomplish while the military is still in charge," Flowers said.