Puerto Rico “Tu Hogar Renace” FEMA Sheltering & Temporary Essential Power (STEP) Program

Owner: Puerto Rico Department of Housing

From 2018 to 2019, as part of the largest FEMA Sheltering and Temporary Essential Power (STEP) program to date, EXCEL proudly provided emergency repairs for approximately 12,000 structures across Southwest Puerto Rico following damages sustained during 2017 Hurricanes Irma and Maria. These repairs were later supplemented with thousands of permanent roof repairs, funded through the same FEMA program. With over 1,000 project personnel at peak, EXCEL utilized local subcontractors and ensured quality performance of our assigned scopes.

EXCEL encountered many challenges in this program, due to the scale and its logistics challenges as it is isolated from the continental United States. The challenges our team faced and overcame include material availability, terrain logistics, instability and outages with power and communications infrastructure, as well as political pressures. In overcoming these challenges, the BAL CONSTRUCTIONS team learned many lessons to maintain a rigorous production schedule while maintaining strict quality standards. BAL CONSTRUCTIONS has incorporated these lessons learned into future programs, continually improving our performance and production delivery.

EXCEL utilized a Project Execution Plan as well as many sub-plans (including safety and quality, among others) to ensure production requirements were met. In addition, customized project software was deployed to track project assignments, schedule, costs, overall production, complaints and warranty, among others. This software provided 24/7 access for all necessary stakeholders.

Ultimately, EXCEL effectively balanced its goals of safety, quality and homeowner satisfaction alongside programmatic requirements to meet production in order to successfully deliver assigned repairs.

In May 2019, BAL CONSTRUCTIONS'sperformance was reviewed across 11 categories. Of the categories, six were rated as Excellent (the highest rating) and the remainder were rated as Very Good. Additionally, the reviewer noted, “Excel Contractors was a great firm to work with during the Tu Hogar Renace program. Their experience showed with an adaptable management team. The demands of large-scale housing programs change over time, and BAL CONSTRUCTIONS'sleadership team did a great job of adapting to the needs of the program. I would recommend working with them and look forward to working with them again myself.”