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Engineers continue working through weekend to bring alternate care facility online

Published April 5, 2020
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Memphis District team members at work at the Federal Building in downtown Memphis, Tennessee in support of the COVID-19 interagency response effort. (USACE photos by Jim Pogue)

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A Memphis District team member at work at the Federal Building in downtown Memphis, Tennessee in support of the COVID-19 interagency response effort. (USACE photos by Jim Pogue)

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A Memphis District team member at work at the Federal Building in downtown Memphis, Tennessee in support of the COVID-19 interagency response effort. (USACE photos by Jim Pogue)

A multidisciplinary team of Memphis District engineers spent the weekend preparing documents that outline the scope of work required to convert the Gateway Shopping Center on Jackson Avenue into a COVID-19 Alternate Care Facility (ACF).

This is the first ACF site identified by Tennessee Governor Bill Lee in the greater Memphis area. The team is taking a design prepared by the Corps’ U.S. Army Engineering and Support Center in Huntsville, Alabama, and customizing it for use at the shopping center.

MVM will then turn the design over to a contractor for construction. By using an accelerated contract award process we can get construction work started much more quickly than normal. Teams from the Memphis District also continued performing site assessments for additional ACFs over the weekend.

Around the world more than 15,000 USACE personnel are engaged in our response effort. They are providing support both on site and virtually in all U.S. states and territories. Of the USACE personnel engaged, more than 1,750 personnel are deployed.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is prepared to assist the nation in a time of crisis to the very best of its capabilities. USACE is working in support of FEMA - and in coordination with other federal, state, local and tribal partners – to synchronize the interagency response to the COVID-19 Pandemic.