Public procurement often poses significant challenges for expediting disaster resilience and sustainable infrastructure. HGACBuy offers a federally compliant cooperative purchasing program that streamlines procurement for professional planning, consulting, and continuity of operations services. DRMP recently contracted through HGACBuy to provide these services for faster project delivery.
This enables local governments, quasi-governmental agencies, and non-profits to efficiently meet their preparedness, resilience, and disaster response and recovery needs.
Operated by the Houston-Galveston Area Council (H-GAC), a regional government entity in Texas, HGACBuy provides nationwide access to competitively bid contracts covering a wide range of products and services, including vehicles, emergency equipment, technology, and construction services. By leveraging volume purchasing and pre-negotiated contracts, HGACBuy helps participating entities save time and money while ensuring full compliance with procurement laws and regulations.
Josh Norman, DRMP’s disaster resilience and sustainability practice leader, shares insights on how HGACBuy accelerates project delivery by simplifying the procurement process.
What types of clients can benefit most from DRMP’s emergency and disaster-related services through HGACBuy?
Through HGACBuy, 10,000 local, state, and non-profit organization members can now access our experienced resources anywhere in the country to prepare and respond to climate threats and impacts. Local governments, with limited capacity to plan, respond, and recover from disaster in an expedited fashion, can now easily partner with DRMP to fill resource gaps in their organization.
DRMP offers a menu of resilience and recovery services for HGACBuy members that empower them to understand their threats, risks, and vulnerabilities, plan adaptation strategies to a changing environment, and prepare to lead integrated, local recovery programs following disasters.
In particular, DRMP is prioritizingreassessment of recovery capacity and operational readiness based on potential adjustments to FEMA and current legislation (H.R. 4669 FEMA Act). Some of the proposed changes in the FEMA Act will adjust how FEMA collects cost estimates for recovery projects. The new law would allow local governments to provide their own cost estimates, using licensed professionals, for all damaged infrastructure and facilities. DRMP can update recovery procedures to capitalize on the advantages provided in the proposed legislation and create recovery plans for individual critical infrastructure and priority facilities. These plans, supported by DRMP’s local, licensed engineering capacity, can shrink recovery time from years to months.
What types of emergency operations and incident response services does DRMP provide under the HGACBuy contract, and how do these services help clients act quickly and effectively after a disaster?
DRMP provides “boots on the ground” and “eyes in the sky” during emergency operations and incident response. Our staff has served in Emergency Operation Centers (EOC) during major activations and supported debris monitoring operations, but our greatest strength comes from our technical and technological resources. Our Survey and Mapping Division has dedicated strike teams that deploy Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to provide real-time situational awareness to EOCs and our Construction, Engineering and Inspection (CEI) teams provide rapid preliminary assessment of critical infrastructure and priority facilities. Our documentation during the incident period is intended to position our clients for subsequent phases of recovery.
What experience does DRMP have in supporting communities before, during, and after disasters, and how do tools such as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), Geographic Information System (GIS) or stormwater modeling enhance the firm’s response capabilities?
DRMP is a premier provider of all-hazard resilience services through HGACBuy. We support state and local agencies in responding to and recovering from natural disasters.
Our services include the deployment of UAVs to quickly assess the magnitude and extent of damage. We also assign technical specialists to evaluate buildings, roads, bridges, and marine infrastructure.
In addition, we assist with the development and administration of grants for recovery programs such as FEMA Public Assistance, the Federal Highway Administration Emergency Relief (FHWA-ER) program, and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Community Development Block Grant–Disaster Recovery (HUD CDBG-DR) program.
Before disasters occur, our planners work proactively with multi-disciplinary teams. These teams include stormwater modelers, environmental scientists, GIS technicians, and professional engineers.
Together, they develop comprehensive vulnerability assessments and adaptation or mitigation strategies that address critical infrastructure and community priorities.
What continuity of operations and contingency planning services does DRMP offer, and how do they help clients maintain essential services during disasters?
We can provide continuity of operation planning for Utility Authorities across the country. Our planners have led major continuity planning operations for highly complex industries that operate simultaneously and interdependently across multiple locations within the United States. This specialized planning experience can ensure Utility Authorities and other organizations have the plans, processes, and tools they need to maintain operations under the worst of conditions and restore full operations with the least amount of down time.
What sets DRMP apart in conducting risk, vulnerability, and hazard assessments?
DRMP brings multi-discipline teams to the planning process, which provides unique prospective and innovative approaches to conducting risk, vulnerability, and hazard assessments. Using advanced survey techniques, including UAVs, we improve existing data sets in an accelerated timeframe. Our use of advanced flood modeling tools can provide high level analysis of exposure and sensitivity to critical assets with relatively low costs. We focus on the future to include projected climate conditions and population growth. This planning focus provides a separate layer of asset life cycle using factors for future climate and development expansion over the designated planning horizon.
Can DRMP assist with hazard mitigation planning and long-term recovery strategies?
Definitely. Following the full resilience life-cycle approach, we advance vulnerability and risk planning to develop mitigation and adaptation solutions that will impact your capital improvement plan over the next 50 years. Focusing on resilient solutions to chronic stresses and sudden shocks to infrastructure, our experienced planners paired with technical specialists provide solutions to mitigate and adapt to vulnerabilities, using green, gray, and blue solutions. Green infrastructure refers to natural systems such as wetlands, urban forests, and green roofs that manage water and improve environmental health. Gray infrastructure includes traditional engineered systems such as pipes, pumps, and treatment facilities. Blue infrastructure focuses on water-based elements like rivers, lakes, and coastal systems that support water management and resilience. Finding the correct combination of strategies that protect infrastructure and improve communities, as well as economic development is one of the most rewarding aspects of our work.
What kinds of structural assessment and restoration services does DRMP provide under this contract, and how do these services support rapid damage assessment and rebuilding after a disaster?
One of the greatest benefits of working with the DRMP team is our ability to seamlessly navigate all phases of disaster response and recovery. Our integrated, multi-disciplinary task forces ensure that data is collected in ways that support every stage of the process. UAV imagery helps prioritize assessments, while detailed evaluations by engineering teams give design teams a head start and establish an accurate project scope, which is crucial for insurance, FEMA, and other funding agencies. Also, our grant specialists work in parallel with project and construction managers to keep projects moving forward and ensure FEMA receives accurate, complete documentation. With a deep understanding of the full recovery lifecycle and how its many parts intersect, DRMP delivers a distinct advantage in supporting disaster recovery programs.
How does the HGACBuy program streamline procurement for all hazard preparedness, response and recovery services?
HGACBuy streamlines procurement by offering its members pre-qualified contractor pool/lists. The pre-qualified contractor pool/lists were established through a formal sealed competitive proposal process to establish pre-qualified contractor(s) with ceiling rates for services. The solicitations placed emphasis on the Federal Procurement Standards of “Super Circular 2 C.F.R. 200” and the required affirmative steps for contracting with small and minority businesses, women business enterprises, and labor surplus area firms.
Local governments, as HGACBuy end-users, should follow their standard policies when purchasing through HGACBuy. If purchases are anticipated to be funded with federal grant dollars, such as FEMA or HUD assistance, members should obtain price quotes from at least three contractors from the available pre-qualified list.
Current legislation (H.R. 4669: FEMA Act), if passed, will reduce the procurement requirement on local, tribal, and non-profits, affording them the same limited requirements imposed on state governments, making it even easier to expedite procurement under emergency circumstances.
How do DRMP’s partnerships within the Trilon Group enhance the firm’s capacity to deliver resilience services across different regions and disciplines?
In collaboration with our Trilon partner firms, we combine local knowledge and capacity with national resilience and recovery experience. Working under a standardized organizational model and procedures, DRMP integrates our Trilon partners’ local resources into a familiar recovery platform that offers clients a consistent level of service with team members who are familiar with the region and its unique characteristics. Together, we add the experience of leading state recovery programs for Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana, Texas, and Mississippi, responding to environmental disaster as part of the Superfund Technical Assessment and Response Team (START), and securing and managing over $1 billion in grant funds for clients across the country.
Our combined Resilience and Sustainability expertise is recognized across the United States with major resilient infrastructure planning and implementation projects and awards.
