Continuing Authorities Program (CAP)

The Corps’ Continuing Authorities Program (CAP) is a group of legislative authorities under which the Corps of Engineers can plan, design, and implement certain types of water resources projects without project specific congressional authorization. The purpose of the CAP is to plan and implement projects of limited size, cost, scope and complexity. The links below provide information about active CAP authorities in Little Rock and their project purposes.

All projects in the CAP include a feasibility phase and an implementation phase. Planning activities, such as development of alternative plans to achieve the project goals, initial design and cost estimating, environmental analyses, and real estate evaluations, are performed during the feasibility phase, to develop enough information to decide whether to implement the project. The feasibility phase is initially Federally funded up to $100,000. Any remaining feasibility phase costs are shared 50/50 with the non-Federal sponsor after executing a feasibility cost sharing agreement (FCSA). The final design, preparation of contract plans and specifications, permitting, real estate acquisition, project contracting and construction, and any other activities required to construct or implement the approved project are completed during the implementation phase. The Corps and the non-federal sponsor sign a project partnership agreement (PPA) near the beginning of the implementation phase. Costs beyond the feasibility phase are shared as specified in the authorizing legislation for that section.  For more information, please access the links below or email: LRCAP@usace.army.mil