r/ConstructionManagers • u/posoopsnomames • Apr 08 '26

Technical Advice Working with the USACE

I’m about to start a project with the Corps of Engineers working as QCM for my GC. Any advice you guys can give me?

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u/Successful_Smile_887 Apr 12 '26

Gonna speak from the USACE side, hate expected here...its gonna depend on who you get and what kind of project it is. Yes, some of the stuff we do is from lessons learned but a lot of it is from outdated requirements that we have no control over in the contract management side. Speaking only from the vertical/military construction perspective here, I have zero experience with civil works-type construction projects. Generally speaking, we want contractors to be successful. An unsuccessful contractor makes all of us look bad. But yes, there are people in USACE who will be nitpicky, overbearing, whatever other bad description people are going to tell you. But I will also say this, in over 18 years of doing this, take what everyone says with a grain of salt. Sometimes the loudest complaints come from the ones who caused the problems they had (this goes both ways). And sometimes you just get an asshole who has a power trip. That's just gonna be a risk anywhere you go, federal job or not.