White House planned to start Triumphal Arch work under unrelated contract

Source: WaPo

The Trump administration planned to start work at the site of the president’s proposed Triumphal Arch by piggybacking on an existing, unrelated contract for engineering services at the White House grounds more than a mile away, emails obtained by The Washington Post show.

The move would allow the administration to bypass a potentially lengthy public bidding process, and experts said it was unusual because the arch site is on National Park Service land across the Potomac River and is not part of the White House complex.

Park Service acting director Jessica Bowron wrote to White House officials last month asking whether the agency could extend a contract between the White House and engineering firm AECOM Services for an environmental assessment for the proposed 250-foot arch.

In her email, Bowron acknowledged that the proposed arch isn’t adjacent to the White House like Lafayette Square, another site AECOM has worked on under the same agreement, but she wrote that using the existing contract would allow work to “align with the Administration’s timeline.”

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2026/05/14/trump-officials-okd-use-white-house-contract-begin-triumphal-arch-work