Multi-Billion Dollar Construction Bundling Strategy Draws Concern That Local Contractors May Be Left Out; ODR Thinks Otherwise

Lawmakers are concerned that a new plan to expedite federally funded reconstruction projects could leave local contractors out in the cold.

Rebuild USVI, announced in January by Governor Albert Bryan Jr, is aimed at tackling the current backlog of territorial disaster recovery projects by creating multi-million dollar bundles and attracting capable international contractors to complete the work. The project, which will be run under the purview of the Office of Disaster Recovery, was conceptualized because “reconstruction cannot be conducted in a business-as-usual fashion,” according to ODR Director Adrienne Williams-Octalien.

Calling it a “historic and ambitious” initiative, Mrs. Williams-Octalien told members of the Senate Committee on Disaster Recovery, Infrastructure and Planning on Friday that the initiative would be one of the “largest and most concentrated infrastructure investments in the Caribbean region.” ODR has already begun conducting market research in several mainland states and met with several large engineering, procurement and construction companies, Ms. Williams-Octalien told lawmakers, with mixed results. While several firms were interested, they found the way the recovery effort is currently structured somewhat off-putting. To attract tier-one contractors, GVI needs to “change the way we do business,” the head of ODR declared.

Though most legislators were in support of the intent of the initiative, several wondered whether local contractors would have sufficient ability to participate in bidding for the bundled projects. Ms. Williams-Octalien noted that there were several hundred projects in the pipeline over the next two years that would not be included in the bundles. “We’re going to need every contractor that is able to work on these projects to be able to push this forward.”