Engineers Provide Reconstruction Overview

By LuAnne Fantasia
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Gulf Region North

TIKRIT — In the Salah ad Din province of Iraq, the Iraq Reconstruction Program includes more than 300 infrastructure projects. There are 209 finished with 48 currently active and six planned to start to date. The remaining 45 projects are currently still in the developmental stages.

Many of these projects are in remote locations. Some of these projects are high-capacity electrical distribution projects and large treatment facilities for water and sewage.

The following information provides a snapshot of projects in the Salah ad Din province with
additional information on several projects.

Building, health and education projects:
• Of the 103 approved building, health and education projects for Salah ad Din, 92 are completed. The 84 completed schools provide an enhanced learning environment for more than 29,000 school children.
• Eight Primary Healthcare Clinics are completed, and when fully operational, each will benefit 100 medical patients daily. Currently, one healthcare center is operational, while the others are preparing to open their doors.
• A school project planned to start next week is a school for deaf and mute children. This new two-story structure will accommodate the special learning needs for about 150 students, with a dormitory area, as well as classrooms and administrative space. It is scheduled to be finished this December.
• A $750,000 project to upgrade and repair a vocation technical school started last November and is scheduled to be completed in July. The industrial school will be tied to the provincial employment offices and will support job postings which include the oil refinery, power plant, drug industry, fertilizer plant, textile mill, and water bottling plant. The renovated school will accommodate a student body of approximately 200.

Oil Sector:
• Two oil refinery projects scheduled to begin this summer will protect the refinery, enhance operations, and secure refinery output to increase fuel delivery to the Iraqi marketplace. Both projects, which have a combined total cost of $12.5 million, are scheduled for completion by the end of the year.

Electrical Sector:
• Of the 47 electrical projects budgeted for the Salah ad Din, 20 are complete, four are still in developmental stages, and one is planned to start this month.
• One of the six electrical projects currently in progress will provide more reliable power to approximately 20,000 people in the city of Bayji and the surrounding villages. The project includes installation of four kilometers of 33kV overhead lines and steel towers from the substation.

Security and Justice:
• There are 21 budgeted projects in this sector. Sixteen of those projects are complete and four are still in developmental stages.
• One Iraqi Army project started last week that will renovate an existing facility for an Iraqi Army battalion. The $2 million project is due to be completed this November.

Public works and water:
• Of the 24 water and/or sewage treatment projects financed, 11 are finished; two are planned to start in May and June; and one is still in developmental stages. Twelve projects are currently ongoing, with three being more than 90 percent finished—a water compact unit project; a landfill and incinerator project, and one sewer network.
• A project to repair a drinking water treatment plant started last November with plans to be completed this August. When complete, the plant will supply cleaner drinking water for approximately 200,000 people in Salah ad Din. The scope of work consists of general repairs to the plant operations, a generator, new operator's facility, and electrical maintenance work. The cost of this project is $417,000.

Transportation and communication:
• There are 28 transportation and communication projects budgeted across the Salah ad Din Province; 23 are finished and the five currently under way are a bridge project; a train station renovation; an access road to a power plant; and two other road improvement and road paving projects. All of these projects enhance mobility and access for the Iraqi people of this province. These five ongoing projects alone total over $9.6 million.
• This is only a synopsis of progress in the Salah ad Din Province, one of 18 provinces in Iraq. Since the time of Iraq’s sovereignty in 2004, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has completed more than 3,000 of the original 3,786 projects in the Iraq Reconstruction Program, nationwide.

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