OMAHA, NE. — In celebration of National Engineers Week, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha District hosted a panel on the engineering profession in coordination with the Society of American Military Engineers, student chapter, on the University of Nebraska, Omaha campus. Additionally, representatives of the District attended the National Society of Black Engineers Mixer on the UNO campus, the Omaha STEM Ecosystem Launch, and the Annual Engineers Banquet, held last week, sponsored by the Engineer Round Table, a group comprised of more than 20 engineer organizations.
The Omaha District, a member of the local community since 1934, is a regular and significant contributor to not only the Omaha area, but the upper Midwest region as well. In fiscal year 2016 alone, total expenditures on new contracts, support services and leases contributed approximately $1.51 billion regionally. As one of Omaha’s largest government agencies, the District has more than 850 employees with an average annual salary of $75,687, contributing more than $60,000,000 to the local economy. An additional 425 employees work across 60 offices located throughout the Missouri River Basin.
Omaha is a full-service district delivering a wide array of multidisciplinary services in military construction, civil works and environmental restoration. Additionally, there are eight centers of excellence unique to the Omaha District including fuels, transportation, access control points, protective design, interior design and military munitions design center supporting agencies and businesses both nationally and internationally.
The more than 2,500 projects last year represented a variety across the District’s eight ongoing programs: Military Construction, Hydropower, Fuels, Contingency, Civil Works, Ecosystem Restoration, Work for Others, and Sustainment Restoration and Modernization.
Notable current projects include the United States Strategic Command building; one of nine unified commands in the Department of Defense located at Offutt Air Base, Nebraska. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers - Omaha District first designed and now is building a one-of-a-kind $1.2 billion building that will allow USSTRATCOM to continue their mission of coordinating the necessary command and control capabilities by providing the President, Secretary of Defense and other national leaders the most timely and accurate information available. The new building will provide USSTRATCOM the most up-to-date technology available and an updated Global Operations Center, or nerve center for USSTRATCOM, offering operational command and control of the Nation's global strategic forces.
In addition to USSTRATCOM, the Omaha District was tasked, in 2015, to assist the VA with building the Rocky Mountain Regional VA Center. The center is a 1.2 million square foot replacement for the post WWII hospital located in Denver. The Project incorporates 148-bed VA medical center, including inpatient tertiary care and ambulatory care, 30-bed Spinal Cord Injury/Disorder Center, research/lab building, parking structures; and supporting facilities including administration, training, recreation, energy, and utilities. LEED-Silver targeted. The project should be completed this year.
Also supporting the Warfighter, the District is completing projects at Ft. Carson, Colorado to support the 4th Infantry Combat Aviation Brigade which was established in 2013. In order to properly bed-down the Army's 13th Combat Aviation brigade over $800M and 24 facilities were executed by USACE Omaha. The new facilities include hangars, barracks, runway, control tower, fire station, brigade/battalion headquarters and company operation facilities. The new facilities are required to meet the mission requirements of the 2,700 -soldier Aviation brigade and their 113-helicopters which became combat ready in 2014.
In civil works, the Missouri River Recovery Program, which spans the Omaha and Kansas City districts, continued work on projects to build and maintain habitat for three threatened and endangered species - the piping plover, interior least tern, and pallid sturgeon. Projects range from vegetation management on sandbars for nesting birds to creating slower, shallower sections along the river where larval pallid sturgeon can forage for food.
In addition, the district oversaw the development and growth of a Private/Government Partnership with Western States Power Corporation (WSPC) for private investment in hydro-power infrastructure improvement. This partnership will allow the Omaha District to address critical needs at the Nations Hydro-power Facilities in the Omaha District. WSPC has committed to funding a major rehabilitation project at the Fort Randall Project in SD and strategic repairs at 5 hydro facilities on the Missouri River. With the commitment of WSPC the Omaha District has created a long term Masterplan to address much needed repairs to ensure the reliability of hydro-power in the Great Plains region.
The Omaha District environmental mission has two major focus areas: restoration and stewardship. The Corps' goal for the environmental mission is to restore ecosystem structure and processes, manage the nation's land and water resources in a sustainable manner and support cleanup and protection activities in an efficient and effective manner. This focus reflects protection of our natural resources under numerous federal laws, including the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA), Clean Water Act, Coastal Zone Management Act, Endangered Species Act, Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act, Magnuson Fishery Conservation and Management Act, and Migratory Bird Conservation Act. USACE Omaha District works in partnership with other federal and state agencies, local communities, non-governmental organizations and academic institutions to find innovative solutions to challenges that affect everyone -- sustainability, endangered species, and ecosystem restoration.
Some of the other services offered by the Omaha District are:
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Federal civil works activities including administration of the Clean Water Act Section 404 regulatory program in the upper Missouri River basin
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Engineering design and construction for the Army and Air Force in eight Mountain and Upper Midwest states
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Hazardous, toxic, and radioactive waste cleanup: restoring the environment for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Defense at sites throughout the United States
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Reimbursable program support to a diverse group of Federal partners addressing civil, military, and environmental support arenas
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Delivery of Real Estate products and services supporting all assigned missions and other Federal agencies
District team members are also active and contributing members in their local communities throughout the region. Locally, district members participated in activities such as Operation Santa, Brush Up! Nebraska Paint-a-Thon, fund raising for the Combined Federal Campaign, Bald Eagle Days, National Engineers Week, and Water Safety education at events such as the Missouri River Expo and World O! Water. Additionally, the Omaha District is an active sponsor of the National Society of Black Engineers as well as the Society of American Military Engineers Mentoring Program as part of STEM outreach program.
The District has more than 80 years of distinguished service marked by engineering excellence, outstanding technical support, and superb multi-disciplinary services. Some of our ongoing projects date back more than fifty years and contribute to the history of our country. Cheyenne Mountain, located in Colorado Springs, once held North American Aerospace Defense Command, and is still utilized today for military operations. Additionally, The Omaha District decommissions missile sites and cold war bases across the U.S. and maintains several dams on the Missouri River. Collectively the dams generate enough power to power the state of Nebraska for a year. The district also performs flood risk mitigation throughout the Missouri River Basin to minimize the threat of flooding to those who reside there.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Omaha District has earned an exceptional reputation for overall engineering excellence, outstanding technical support, and superb execution across quality engineering solutions in a timely and cost-effective manner, through collaboration with our partners, to secure our Nation, energize our economy, reduce disaster risk, protect our environment, and manage our water. Lastly, the District is committed to working with small businesses. Although the District is currently under a temporary hiring freeze, all open positions in the district can be found at USA Jobs, www.usajobs.gov.
Any questions may be directed to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Public Affairs Office, 402-995-2417.