What factors influence the price of the debris contracts?

• Contractors are being asked to manage debris removal and demolition operations that are unprecedented in American history. Their costs reflect the scope, complexity, and social and economic challenges of such an operation.
  
  These factors directly contribute to the cost of our contract operations.
   
• First, there is a significant mobilization effort and the management of approximately 726 first-tier subcontractors and an untold number of lower tier subcontractors.
   
• Then, the Federal Government and its state partners require a stringent waste segregation process, ensuring compliance with environmental regulations. This mandate requires vigilant oversight by a large network of contractor quality control personnel.
   
• Thirdly, the contractors must adhere to Corps enforcement of a rigorous safety program. This effort returned benefits in a government lost time injury frequency rate of .38 for over 2M man hours of exposure. The overall USACE frequency rate is 1.01. The contractor lost time injury frequency rate is .60 for over 15M man hours exposure as compared to the national construction rate of 6.4 for 2006.
   
• And finally, the waste stream is more typical of a flood fight, versus a hurricane mission that includes removal of vegetation and wind blown debris.
   
• In summary, Katrina was an atypical storm event, requiring atypical management and workforce structure, stringent fiscal, environmental and safety oversight, and response in a disaster zone void of many resources and wrought with unprecedented engineering and construction challenges.