Two Large Contracts for Joint-venture with Bioengineering
Arcadis at Work on Protection of New Orleans
In October 2007 it was announced that Arcadis had acquired its second contract in New Orleans, this one worth $50 million. The first, worth around $150 million, was between Arcadis and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. With these two contracts, Arcadis becomes one of the few foreign companies that have made headway in New Orleans.
By Lambert-Jan Koops
Piet Dircke, program directeur Water at Arcadis: “What we’re e trying to encomplish is an optimal coupling between the Dutch water knowledge and the American market”. |
The damage in the New Orleans area caused by Hurricane Katrina was twofold in nature. There was, of course, the financial damage that companies, individuals and government agencies suffered when houses, factories and offices were destroyed by the storm. In addition there was damage to the city’s water management system, which could cause a lot of trouble in the event of a new hurricane. Immediately after the disaster, the U.S. Army Corps carried out $1.5 million dollars’ worth of recovery activities. The Corps had only a limited amount of time since New Orleans has a hurricane season every year. Over a one-and-a-half year period, the old dikes underwent maintenance and strengthening treatment, the locks were repaired and the drainage systems were restored to their former state. With these activities, water defenses were brought back to pre-Katrina levels.
Hurricane Protection Office
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Piet Dircke informs secretary of state Tineke Huizinga
about the activities in New Orleans. |
After finishing these recovery activities, it was time to improve the safety of New Orleans. The Hurricane Protection Office (HPO) was established for this purpose. The HPO divided the necessary activities into various projects, one of which, costing $150 million, was put out to tender to a joint venture of Arcadis and Bioengineering. The joint venture also got a parallel assignment, a $50 million contract with the US Army Corps of Engineers New Orleans District. Piet Dircke is program director for water at Arcadis and responsible for all water-related activities outside of the US. He says it’s not an easy job for foreign companies to acquire contracts in the US. “There’s a lot of complaining about Americans being protectionist when it comes to calling for tenders for large projects. I’m not saying the commissioners don’t possess any nationalistic sentiment, but I think it’s an exaggeration to say that foreign companies are obstructed. The problem lies more in the fact that there’s a jungle of rules and regulations that a commissioner has to adhere to. It’s almost impossible for an outsider to meet these requirements. For instance, as a commissioner you get bonus points in the tender project when you have ex-workers in service. For this, they simply add up the Army Corps years of experience that your company can offer . Also, there are guidelines for using local workers and there is a policy to promote minorities. And this is only the tender. After the contract has been awarded, there are also complex rules and requirements regarding risk and liability. A contractor needs to work through all of this with lawyers and insurers, and this, too, requires specific knowledge that an outsider simply doesn’t have. We owe a lot to our American colleagues and partners in acquiring the contracts. They knew American procedures, they knew the customer, and therefore they knew how best to prepare the tender.
Optimal Linkage
Because of the cooperation between the Dutch and American people, there has to be a good distribution of tasks between the parties. Dircke: “What we try to achieve is an optimal linkage of Dutch water expertise and the American market. But we also try to have the Dutch and American workers interact in an optimal fashion. At this moment fifty Americans are working for us in New Orleans as well as a few Dutch people. We only deploy Dutch people if they can offer added value with their knowledge and experience, for example in the field of innovation or risk
management. For example, all dike inspectors are Americans, but the supervisor is Dutch.
A Remarkable Inspection
The first assignment that Arcadis carried out for the US Army Corps of Engineers was to inspect damage to buildings and infrastructure. This was part of a smaller blanket order before the big contracts were signed. It wasn’t the first time that Arcadis had carried out such an assignment: the company had been deployed for such work after the 9/11 attacks. This time, however, the inspection included a rather remarkable component: the first building to be inspected for damage was the office of the US Army Corps of Engineers itself. The big $50 million and $150 million contracts are blanket orders that comprise various separate queries and commissions. Every commission is good for a specific sum that can be as much as a few million dollars and is followed by a new commission until the maximum amount has been reached. Another maximum pertains to the time factor: the contracts are meant to run for five years. This is a minimum, according to Dircke. “Five years is not much when we look at large water projects that were carried out in the Netherlands. For example, look at the Dutch Delta Works that were started in 1953 and completed in 1998. In five years we can do a lot of planning and designing, but execution is another story. I think the absolute minimum for the activities is ten years, and only if all goes well.”
In Full Flight
The first year has passed and approximately 10% of the contract has been spent. The process seems to be on schedule, but Dircke thinks things are just getting going. “It has taken quite a while to really get started. There were various reasons for this. Of course the plans had to be approved by officials, but we also had to deal with changes within the US Army Corps of Engineers. They gave priority to disaster recovery, but also had to cope with internal changes. As a result of the disaster, the staff profile changed substantially: a lot of workers left, and there was a complete turnover at the management level. In short, our commissioner had to deal with their own reorganization before they could instruct us effectively.”
No Water
Now that the first year has been completed, Arcadis is working full tilt in New Orleans. Dircke is satisfied with the activities in the city, but also sees opportunities for improvement. “In addition to my job at Arcadis, I lecture on cities and water at Rotterdam University. There I often deal with delta urbanization, or residential areas near river broads. What struck me about New Orleans was that there’s hardly any water to be seen in the city, a result of the high flood defences.
Admittedly, the Mississippi bars the city, but besides that there’s hardly any current to be found. In my opinion this doesn’t suit a city like New Orleans. I have discussed this with different people, who share the opinion that more needs to be on view in New Orleans, as it is, for example, in Rotterdam. It is proposed that cross pollination will occur between Rotterdam and New Orleans in the area of water planning. That way, the water won’t be so much a threat as a valued part of the city.”
Lambert-Jan Koops lkoops@geoinformatics.com is contributing editor of GeoInformatics. Surf to www.arcadis-global.nl for more information on Arcadis.
