兰德-重建美属维尔京群岛的基础设施-探索加快复苏供应链和维持经济收益的选择（英）-2025.7_131页_3mb

Report Summary: Rebuilding Infrastructure in the U.S. Virgin Islands

Issue:
Hurricanes Irma and Maria (2017) caused extensive damage to the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI), necessitating a major recovery effort. The government of the U.S. Virgin Islands (GVI) has struggled to expedite reconstruction due to limited capacity across multiple domains. The GVI has expended 24% of allocated disaster-recovery funds but completed only a quarter of the 110 priority recovery projects. Current recovery spending could take until 2040 to fully spend the approximately $15 billion allocated, with a special cost-share exception expiring soon.

Key Findings:

• Recovery Lagging: Projects face delays due to gaps in management, fiscal, workforce, and supply chain capacities. Red tape, procurement bottlenecks, and logistical challenges for importing materials have prolonged recovery timelines.
• Supply Chain Challenges: Customs, logistics capacities are insufficient for handling the surge in construction materials. Port and seaborne shipping capacity is unlikely to be a major constraint, but smaller-scale bottlenecks in procurement and materials availability exist.
• Economic Impact: Recovery construction could create nearly 5,000 jobs annually if funding is spent at $720 million per year, boosting personal and gross receipts taxes. However, sustainment costs for rebuilt infrastructure (e.g., schools and hospitals) will outpace tax revenues by 2026 unless adjustments are made.
• Project-Specific Insights (e.g., JFL Hospital): Complexities in contracting, leadership turnover, and long lead times for specialized materials (e.g., lead-lined drywall) have caused significant delays. Sixty-five percent of a temporary hospital project's budget was tied to Category Z administration costs.

Recommendations:

1. From Federal Government: Provide upfront funding (not tied to projects) to bolster GVI staffing and management capacity. Reform Category Z funds to allow broader administrative support rather than limiting them to specific projects.
2. For the GVI: Adopt modular construction and central procurement to enhance supply chain efficiency. Bundle recovery projects to leverage economies of scale and share resource needs. Expand revenue streams through medical tourism and energy-efficient infrastructure to sustain gains.
3. Future Actions: Monitor the SPMO’s progress on large project bundles, track tax revenues and sustainment costs, and iterate on strategies to address these challenges.

Conclusion:
Accelerating recovery requires addressing systemic capacity gaps before sustainment costs exceed tax revenues. Without significant investments in management, logistics, and workforce capacity, post-hurricane recovery could take decades to materialize, despite policy tweaks to speed up reconstruction.