Eight years after category 5 hurricanes Irma and Maria struck the US Virgin Islands in August and September 2017, Jacobs has won a $137m contract to programme-manage the rebuild.
Hired by the US Virgin Islands Public Finance Authority, Jacobs will work with the islands’ Super Project Management Office on rebuilding hospitals, schools, transit corridors, power, water and wastewater utilities over the next three years.
It will advise on future project planning, environmental management, logistics, supply chain and workforce challenges.
Some 90,000 people live on the Caribbean archipelago, mainly on the islands of St. Croix, St. Thomas, and St. John.
The hurricanes caused widespread devastation and hurt the territory’s staple industry, tourism.
Rebuilding has been slow, despite a $23bn grant of federal funding in the hurricanes’ aftermath.
Writing in 2022, the islands’ Delegate to Congress, Stacey E. Plaskett, accused the first Trump administration of “slow-walking” the money.
She also blamed local government.
“I must be transparent by recognising that unfortunately local government exacerbated the slow pace of rebuild. The unprecedented funding was not met with sufficient macro-planning. We did not use the first years after the storm to sufficiently build capacity—training while paying workforce to meet construction and project management demands, developing integrated fund and project management systems, aggressively recruiting experienced Virgin Islanders to return home to advance the rebuild, and educating the population to be prepared for spending the massive funding from Congress,” she wrote.
Jacobs executive vice president Ron Williams said that “with tourism as the economic engine, it’s essential we prioritise efforts quickly and make the islands’ infrastructure more resilient for the future”.
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