The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Jacksonville District is working on more than $4 billion in storm disaster recovery projects in Florida and Puerto Rico.
More than $3.5 billion of that money is going directly to flood risk reduction projects. Now, districts across the country are looking to hire thousands of people to help with those ongoing projects and studies as well as ones planned for the future.
More than $17 billion was allocated to the USACE for disaster recovery efforts in the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018, signed into law on Feb. 9, 2018.
That funding has been used for repairs to Army Corps projects damaged by natural disasters and to perform emergency dredging of shoaled debris left at Corps project sites by natural disasters.
In July of 2018 the Jacksonville District was allocated more than $3 billion - bringing the total federal funding allocation for the district to more than $4 billion - for long term recovery investments in its area of responsibility. That money will be used for 14 studies and 19 construction projects designed to reduce risk in communities that have been damaged by storm events in the past.
Between April and May of 2018, nearly $800 million was earmarked for 80 projects across the country and in U.S. territories. Fourteen of those identified projects are within the Jacksonville District area of responsibility; which includes Florida, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
USACE Jacksonville District Work in Florida
To help get this massive workload finished, the Jacksonville District and districts nationwide are looking to hire thousands of people.
A USACE Jacksonville District spokeswoman told WJCT in an email they have “direct-hiring authority for economists, biologists, all types of engineers, contracting specialists and physical scientists,” but they’re hiring in other areas as well.
USACE Jacksonville District Work in Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands
The district will be hosting a Corps-wide job fair from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Friday, April 26, at the Jacksonville Airport DoubleTree hotel, 2101 Dixie Clipper Rd., 32218.
Brendan Rivers can be reached at brivers@wjct.org, 904-358-6396 or on Twitter at @BrendanRivers.
