CH2M HILL

Markets

CH2M HILL provides multidisciplinary services to markets diversified by both industry and geography. With our full-service capabilities and global footprint, our market scope is wide, yet our expertise in each market we serve is strong and focused.

Locations

CH2M HILL's global organization is structured to provide a full range of project delivery services to support clients worldwide. To learn more about our locations click here.

Hurricane Relief

Within days of Hurricane Katrina making landfall on the Gulf Coast, CH2M HILL was on the ground supporting recovery efforts and continued its commitment to helping the citizens and businesses in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas recover and rebuild.

CH2M HILL feels privileged to have been able to work directly with the Gulf Coast citizens, small businesses, and local, state, and federal agencies to lend assistance during the relief and recovery efforts following Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma.

When tens of thousands of citizens lost their homes, CH2M HILL helped the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) provide the first temporary housing in the region. When thousands of children in Mississippi lost their schools, CH2M HILL helped the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers build new classrooms, putting 8,000 kids back in school during the first month.

These are just two examples of the firm's relief and recovery work in the aftermath of the country's worst natural disaster. For CH2M HILL employees, it wasn't about pay and profit. It was work that came from the heart.

Innovative Solutions

Immediately after the storm, an engineer with CH2M HILL realized he had an innovative solution to a significant problem—stopping the water from pouring into the City of New Orleans from the breached levees. CH2M HILL delivered more than 3,800 specially designed polypropylene fabric bags to the relief effort. The bags were each filled with up to 16,000 pounds of sand and dropped into breached sections of the 17th Street canal and other levee breaches in New Orleans, stopping the flow of water into the city.

Temporary Housing

One of CH2M HILL's primary roles in helping the Gulf Coast recover from Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma was assisting FEMA with temporary housing. CH2M HILL was initially tasked with providing temporary housing in Alabama; however, FEMA quickly expanded the scope to parts of Mississippi, Texas, and five of the hardest hit parishes in southern Louisiana. CH2M HILL's responsibilities included assessing private and group sites for feasibility; hauling and installing travel trailers, park homes, and mobile homes; installing all necessary utilities including water, sewer, and electricity; providing ongoing maintenance support; and deactivating temporary housing when no longer required. Through CH2M HILL's efforts, more than 24,000 temporary homes have been installed across the Gulf Coast.

Small Business First

CH2M HILL has a long established "small business first" philosophy. Throughout the hurricane relief efforts, CH2M HILL put special emphasis on working with small, disadvantaged, minority, veteran, Hubzone, and women-owned businesses. Local subcontractors have a vested interest in helping to rebuild their communities and CH2M HILL is pleased to direct rebuilding dollars to the local economy.

Helping Schools and Municipalities

An important step in the recovery effort was helping the many impacted children return to a sense of normalcy and security. CH2M HILL worked directly with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Vicksburg District in Mississippi to install temporary classrooms, providing classroom space to accommodate 8,000 children's return to school. In addition, CH2M HILL provided several temporary municipal buildings including police stations, judges' offices, drug enforcement facilities, and fire stations in southern Mississippi to restore functioning capability to the municipalities. In total, 368 temporary structures were installed and more than 80 percent of the work was awarded to small business enterprises.

Citizen and Environmental Safety

Ensuring the safety of the citizens and environment in the Gulf Coast was a key priority for CH2M HILL. Safely removing the piles of debris in New Orleans became the responsibility of CH2M HILL under contract with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Memphis District. More than 120 quality assurance and quality control inspectors deployed to Louisiana within 48 hours of CH2M HILL receiving the contract. Working with local subcontractors, CH2M HILL's team worked 85,000 hours in a two-month period, without a single safety violation, helping to safely remove debris from the streets of Orleans, St. Bernard, and Plaquemines Parishes. In addition, the firm collected damaged "white goods" (refrigerators, washers and dryers, stoves, and other appliances) and supervised the recycling of operations at the Gentilly Landfill, the largest operation of its kind ever undertaken. Inspectors worked to identify and safely remove potentially dangerous trees and vegetation which could endanger people or further damage property. Quality assurance inspectors also worked in southeastern Louisiana providing oversight of the blue roof program, which provided temporary blue tarps for roofs damaged by the storm. The firm also worked with the Environmental Protection Agency to assess 38 Superfund sites in Louisiana and Texas.

Military Base Support

In addition, CH2M HILL worked with the United States Air Force and Defense Logistics Agency to support Gulf Coast military bases with recovery and rebuilding. In Mississippi, CH2M HILL provided IT and GIS support through the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency to Stennis Space Center and various Emergency Operations Centers.

Private Sector Support

CH2M HILL worked closely with private clients throughout the Gulf Coast to help secure offices and repair hurricane damage allowing for continuity of operations and the timely delivery of products we all use everyday. This included working with Procter & Gamble to aid in recovery efforts of four coffee roasting facilities in Louisiana. The firm worked to reestablish power and distribution facilities, restore water and wastewater treatment and disposal, conduct structural assessments of facilities, provide temporary housing for plant workers, and assess and repair hurricane-damaged buildings. CH2M HILL helped Ericsson reestablish communication networks. The firm also assisted Shell Oil in New Orleans and Houston with transferring and housing displaced New Orleans employees; transferring equipment from New Orleans to Houston offices; and extracting files, PCs, and laptops from One Shell Square in New Orleans. In addition, the firm assessed damage and physical contamination of Shell's New Orleans offices.