CH2M Hill got experience managing big government projects in Iraq. Now, the Englewood-based company is working on housing for Hurricane Katrina’s uprooted victims.
It is among companies receiving fast-track contracts from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for work on the storm-ravaged Gulf Coast.
On Tuesday, people began moving into trailer parks hastily constructed in Alabama by CH2M Hill. The company also began moving evacuees onto seven cruise ships docked in four Gulf Coast ports. It will work with FEMA to oversee sanitation and other services for the ships.
FEMA estimates it will need 300,000 temporary homes to house hurricane victims. So far, it has ordered more than 100,000 travel trailers and mobile homes from dealers and factories across the country.
“They are gobbling up everything that is available,” said Jim Lubinskas, spokesman for the Recreation Vehicle Industry Association.
Mountain States RV in Denver is providing 21 travel trailers to FEMA, said Cindy Peters, the dealership’s human-resources manager.
The trailers range from 25 feet to 31 feet long, sell for between $18,000 and $22,000 and are being towed to Baton Rouge, La.
CH2M Hill has installed wastewater-treatment facilities and other infrastructure at the Alabama sites, said Robert Boyer, who is overseeing the FEMA project for CH2M Hill. The company will also oversee operation of the camps for one year.
Plans call for the evacuees to move to more permanent housing within 18 months, Boyer said.
Because Katrina displaced 1 million people, resettling all of them could take far longer, said Ruth Steiner, an associate professor at the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Florida. And those now being moved into the trailers may find them less than adequate for long- term housing.
“You are making trade-offs right and left,” she said. “You want to make people comfortable, but you don’t want to make them so comfortable they don’t want to leave.”
CH2M Hill’s contract is worth up to $100 million. Under the cost-plus agreement, CH2M Hill can pass along all its costs to the government, plus a predetermined profit.
The company expects to do similar work in Louisiana and Mississippi.
FEMA contracted with CH2M Hill, Bechtel Group, Fluor Corp. and Shaw Group to provide the emergency-housing relief after what the agency called “limited competition.” The agency could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
Boyer said the agency picked CH2M Hill from a list of industry leaders it had compiled in the days leading up to the hurricane.
“FEMA had done extensive market research, and they were going to go out to bid so they would have contractors onboard when disaster struck. Before they could complete the process, this occurred,” he said.
The no-bid contracts were needed to provide speedy service to the homeless, he said.
Similar contracting practices have been blamed for spending abuses in Iraq.
The federal housing effort is unprecedented, Steiner said.
Staff writer Tom McGhee can be reached at 303-820-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com.
