More than 400 contractors hungry for work packed into two standing-room-only sessions at a Jan. 13 industry day, hosted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers New Orleans District (NOD), in hopes of learning what it would take to get a piece of a $14.3-billion program to built levees, pump stations and other flood-resistant infrastructure.

根据大型新奥尔良飓风和风暴损害降低风险系统计划，NOD将在2011年6月1日之前提供全面资助的联邦合同，将该地区带到100年的保护水平。NOD和飓风保护办公室将授予其余估计的123份合同NOD指挥官Alvin Lee上校说，2010财政年度的价值为20.2亿美元。2004年，整个点头的计划规模为5.25亿美元。李说，授予了约35份价值1.25亿美元的建筑合同。

在2010年，合同将从不到100万美元到7.5亿美元不等。本月晚些时候，将在新奥尔良东部的1.00亿至2亿美元合同中提高新奥尔良的一大堆堤坝的合同。2月，将出租4亿至7.5亿美元的设计建造合同，在该市的三条船上运河上建造永久性泵站。

Yet many Louisiana and small contractors “feel they are being locked out of business,” says Sen. David Heitmeier (D), who asked the Corps to engage small businesses and Louisiana contractors by hosting the industry day. The purpose was to provide information about government contracts, including scope of work and contracting methods, to these contractors and small businesses. It included specific instructions on how to work with the federal government, including explaining Federal Acquisition Regulations for performance bonds and how to sign up for the Central Contractor Registry.

“In the current economy, the federal government is the only one with dollars to spend on construction,” says Freddie Rush, executive vice president of Mississippi Valley Associated General Contractors. Due to the recession, “interest by contractors who have never done federal work before is extremely high,” he says. But such contractors have no way of knowing what is coming down the pipe and how to prepare for it, “unless you monitor FedBizOpps.com or the Corps site on a daily basis,” he adds.

但是，当一个项目发布在FedBizopps上时，“游戏中已经很晚了，” Matthew Alix Jr.，Sacramento Koo Construction Inc.的业务发展。“您需要提前六个月了解这些项目，以便您可以开始在新利18备用网址财务上和团队合作上定位。”

目前为军团进行工作的大型承包商提供了其选择分包商的标准的详细描述。小型企业管理局和军团的采购技术援助中心就联邦工作的具体要求进行了演讲。

佛罗里达州奥兰多市Giken America Corp.美国区域经理Mike Carter说，他认为这种小型企业的参与提供了比任何实质性的“唇膏服务绒毛”更多的。他说：“除非他们能使某人承担一些责任，否则我没有感觉到承包商想要很多小企业的参与。”尽管如此，他仍然觉得网络机会很有价值。

ALIX辩称，军团及其大承包商应该包括更多的固定合同。“我们去了新奥尔良，寻找作为一家小型企业的工作，还为我们的Protégé公司，Total Team Construction Services，这是一家位于萨克拉曼多的[服务销售，资深拥有的]公司，” Alix说。“我们可以在一些固定的工作中竞争，我们感觉很好，但是我们对被列为不受限制的最佳价值的大量合同不满意。”

李上校说，军团计划更多的验证会议和教学论坛，因为这导致“高素质的竞标我们的项目竞标”。新利18备用网址新奥尔良区的下一个信息会议将于2月2日。