The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) manages one of the largest federal engineering, environmental and building missions in the federal government and spends billions annually accomplishing their missions. USACE is divided into divisions – of proximity to North Carolina are the North and South Atlantic Divisions. 

The North Atlantic Division (NAD), headquartered in Brooklyn, New York, is responsible for the Northeast US from Maine to Virginia, and Wiesbaden Germany.  NAD’s area of responsibility includes fifty Army and thirteen Air Force installations.  NAD provides: construction; master planning; in-house/contracted engineering and design services; construction field supervision/quality assurance/safety; installation readiness; project management; and contract acquisition. Projects include new construction or renovation of military housing, barracks, operations centers, administrative building, schools, hospitals/clinics and childcare facilities. 

The Civil Works Division of NAD includes the ports and waterways in the NAD’s area of responsibility, including Boston and Portland Harbors - the nation’s top ports for foreign waterborne commerce.  This area of responsibility includes several other ports: the Port of NY and NJ - the east coast’s largest container ports; the Port of Philadelphia - world’s largest freshwater port; the Baltimore Harbor - the nation’s top port for roll-on/roll-off cargo; and the Norfolk Harbor - the nation’s largest coal export port.  NAD dredges these harbors and ports to the required federal depth at a cost of approximately $1.6B annually. Much of the dredged material is reused for the purpose of environmental restoration to include the creation of wetlands.

Civil works also includes the inland waterways such as the Atlantic Intracoastal and the Gulf Intracoastal. The heavily used inland waterways are dredged to an authorized federal depth to maintain the navigation and availability for use for both commercial and recreational water traffic. The Philadelphia (NAD) and Wilmington Districts (SAD) both have dredge plants that dredge along the waterways of the East and Gulf Coasts. 

Coastal Storm Risk Management (CSRM) is ocean dredging that puts sand and sand dunes back on the beaches along the coastline.  These projects are vital for the protection of life and property along the coast, protecting towns from catastrophic flooding from the storm surges that accompany a severe storm or hurricane. All projects are dredged to federal specifications and the dunes are built to a certain height for protection of coastal communities. NAD’s CSRM projects span from southern Virginia up the eastern coast to the Canadian border. SAD’s CSRM projects span from North Carolina to the Gulf Coast.

The South Atlantic Division (SAD), headquartered in Atlanta, GA, holds an area of responsibility spanning the southeast United States from North Carolina to Alabama, Puerto Rico, and the U. S. Virgin Islands. 

SAD’s mission includes the design and building of major military facilities of the Army, Air Force, and Department of Veterans Affairs in the southeast.  Serving eleven major Army and thirteen Air Force installations, the division builds barracks, hospitals, office buildings, commissaries, and other facilities to meet the needs of the military. Four major commands and 32% of the stateside Army and 18% of the Air Force are located within the SAD boundaries. 

SAD operates twelve hydropower plants at several lakes and dams within the Division’s boundaries. These hydropower plants produce about 5% of available electricity, augmenting traditional sources of electricity during peak hours, with their turbines produce 5 billion kilowatts annually. 

 The SAD Civil Works program consists of maintaining ports from Morehead City, NC to Pascagoula Harbor in Mississippi on the Gulf of Mexico. Some of the busiest ports in the nation are located in Wilmington, NC; Charleston, SC; Savannah, Ga; Tampa, Fl; Jacksonville, Fl; Miami, Fl; and San Juan, PR - most of which can handle the very large Post-Panamax vessels. 

Both NAD and SAD operate lakes and dams within their boundaries, most of which were built for flood control or water supply. These lakes and dams are also recreation sites, offering camping, hiking, fishing, boating and water safety training.  Most charge a fee for the use of the recreation area. Locations are listed on the USACE website at https://corpslakes.erdc.dren.mil/visitors/visitors.cfm. USACE also administers the dam safety program for the United States, inspecting and repairing the nation’s dams.

The USACE environmental program works to restore degraded ecosystems back to a more natural condition, such as cleaning up the waterways along the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia and Maryland and Lake Okeechobee in Florida. 

The Army is responsible for the clean-up of formally used defense sites (FUDS). USACE executes the FUDS program for the Army. FUDS cleanup activities include the installation restoration program (the cleanup of hazardous substances, pollutants, and contaminants) and the military munitions response program (unexploded ordnance, discarded military munitions response program), and the building demolition and debris removal program.

USACE is responsible for the permits that affect the navigable waters in the United States.  Permit related actions typically include residential/commercial/institutional developments, highways and roads, energy production, pipelines, surface mining, drainage projects, bank stabilization, ports, docks, dredging, and emergency work.

USACE has emergency contracts (ACI) in place to respond to a Presidentially Declared Disaster.  Once a State is approved for Federal Disaster Assistance, USACE may receive a mission to assist with support in immediate emergency response.  USACE may provide: temporary emergency power; clean water; blue roof; debris removal from ports and harbors to keep shipping routes open to deliver supplies; and assessing and restoring critical infrastructure. 

Opportunities are plentiful with the USACE, in both the NAD and SAD.  The Office of Senator Thom Tillis and the North Carolina Military Business Center will host the Southeast Region Federal Construction, Infrastructure and Environmental Summit on April 12-13 in Wilmington, North Carolina.  “The Summit” brings together over 600 representatives of the Corps of Engineers (both NAD and SAD), Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command, Marine Corps Installations East, other Army, Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps installations, US Coast Guard, Department of Veterans Affairs, General Services Administration, other federal agencies, general specialty contractors, designers, and construction suppliers from throughout the Southeast of the United States. Come connect with dozens of federal and DoD agencies that may be procuring your organization’s services and/or products.  For more information on the Summit visit: https://summit.ncmbc.us.