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, though Corps officials said the multiple-award structure provides them with a more efficient process for delivering large civil infrastructure projects along the Texas coast. 

The Corps received 35 submissions for contracts, according to an award notice. The selected firms include San Antonio, Texas-based Gideon Contracting LLC; Dexter, Mo.-based Randy Kinder Excavating Inc.; Anchorage, Alaska-based Central Environmental Inc.; Newbern, Tenn.-based Tybe-Garney Federal JV LLC; West Sacramento, Calif.-based Ahtna-Great Lakes E&I JV; Broomfield, Colo.-based Flatiron Dragados Constructors Inc.; Farmingdale, N.Y.-based Posillico Civil Inc. Coastal Environmental Group Inc., a JV; Spring, Texas-based Webber LLC; Watsonville, Calif.-based Gulf Coast Builders LLP; North Kansas City, Mo.-based Gulf Coast Constructors LLC; Bozeman, Mont.-based Barnard Construction Co. Inc.; Galveston, Texas-based SLSCO Ltd.; Omaha, Neb.-based Kiewit U.S. Contractors Co.; Irving, Texas-based Archer Western Construction LLC; and Novato, Calif.-based Maloney-Odin, a JV. 

The selected firms 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. 

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, which is part of its larger Sabine Pass to Galveston Bay (S2G) Coastal Storm Risk Management Project. 

“This award, which represents the largest construction contract to date for the S2G 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 Texas’ Gulf Coast Protection District, in a statement. GCPD and the Texas General Land Office are helping fund Jefferson County Drainage District No. 7’s approximately 35% local portion of the project. 

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. The work is scheduled to all be completed in 2033.

Kiewit’s piece of the Port Arthur 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. Kiewit representatives did not immediately respond to inquiries about the project. Its work is expected to start in the summer of 2026 and take about three-and-a-half years to complete. 

“This investment improves those defenses to provide more resiliency 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. “This project is emblematic of our efforts up and down the Texas coast to increase coastal storm and flood risk management for the communities we serve.”

The S2G Project is also focusing on areas around Freeport and Orange County, Texas.