State Dept. Ends FY13 With Wave of Embassy Contract Awards

The State Dept. closed out fiscal year 2013 with a flurry of large embassy construction contract awards in September—the fiscal year’s last month—including new construction and major renovations totaling $618.3 million in Europe, Africa, South America and New Zealand.

For all of FY 2013, which ended on Sept. 30, the department’s Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations (OBO) awarded $646 million in construction and renovation contracts, plus another $102.8 million in task orders.

In September, Caddell Construction Co., Montgomery, Ala., won three embassy contracts, totaling $416.3 million. The largest is a new, $160.6-million office annex at the U.S. embassy site in Moscow. Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum designed the 242,000-sq-ft annex.

Caddell also won a $130.7-million contract to construct a new multi-building embassy compound in Nouakchott, Mauritania. AECOM did the concept design, and Integrus Architecture is the architect of record.

In addition, Caddell was awarded a $125-million contract to build a new U.S. embassy compound in The Hague. The project, designed by Moore Ruble Yudell Architects and Planners, includes a chancery office building, a residence for U.S. Marines and other facilities.

B.L. Harbert International, Birmingham, Ala., won a $114.9-million State Dept. contract, awarded on Sept. 29, to build a new U.S. embassy in Paramaribo, Suriname. Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Architects designed the complex.

In late September, Enviro-Management and Research Inc., Springfield, Va., was awarded two embassy renovation contracts, totaling $39.1 million, for projects in Georgetown, Guyana, and Vilnius, Lithuania.

Desbuild Inc., Hyattsville, Md., was awarded a $39.5-million contract on Sept. 30 to rehabilitate the U.S. embassy in Wellington, New Zealand.

Tom Ichniowski has been writing about the federal government as ENR’s Washington Bureau Chief since the George H.W. Bush administration, and he has covered at least five major highway bills. A recognized expert on government policy on infrastructure and regulation, Tom is also a Baltimore native and Orioles fan who grew up rooting for Brooks and Frank Robinson. He is a graduate of Columbia College and Columbia’s graduate school of journalism, where he once used “unrelentless” in a headline.

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