Kathye Johnson has the biggest, riskiest jobs imaginable for a civil engineer. The 48-year-old is in charge of rebuilding Iraq.

As deputy to Brig. Gen. William H. McCoy Jr., head of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Iraq, Johnson manages 2,000 government employees and contractors and a $12 billion budget.

"I'm not a soldier," she said. "I'm a Department of the Army civilian. I've been over here since the end of August. I was over here last summer as a contractor for about three months. I wanted to come back and make a contribution."

In an interview a few days ago with Tribune editorial writer Jim Beamguard, she described the challenges of her job:

On what they're building:

Oh, boy. We're renovating the oil sector. Some water injection facilities. Cluster pump stations for pumping the oil. Some well work-overs to improve well production. Wastewater treatment projects. Sewer treatment. Power transmission. Power generation. Schools. Private health care clinics. Some hospitals. Roads. Some work at the airports and ports. In security, we're doing construction of courthouses and prisons.

I oversee a little over $12 billion worth of construction and nonconstruction activities. We also have a reconstruction logistics organization I'm responsible for. That organization moves all the equipment and materials for the construction projects. They move about $5 billion to $6 billion worth of goods every year throughout the country.

The third area I oversee is called the reconstruction operation center. They monitor the construction. And they contact any quick reaction force that we need for our contractors or trucking companies if they come under enemy fire or threat.

On the risks:

"Safe" over here is always a relative word. Most of them, I would say, are safe. A large number live and work inside the international zone. That is a highly protected area here in Baghdad.

The ones who are the most mobile are the most susceptible to danger, IEDs [improvised explosive devices] or small arms fire. We've had just over 70 casualties - people who have actually died in the last two years. Many of those are local Iraqi subcontractors who are actually moving the goods.

Nothing bad has happened to me personally. The worst experience I had was last summer. Two suicide bombers who blew up a cafe and the market just down the street. That was pretty devastating to see that. The building we work in is a couple hundred feet away from both of those locations.

On her background:

I'm a civil engineer. I worked for a couple of the major engineering companies. Progressively moved up. I started working on construction sites. I've worked on refineries, electrical generation facilities, historic institutions. Most of the major sectors I've worked on. I have an MBA in finance. And from the school of hard knocks.

I'm a single parent. I have 18-year-old son who just started college. The rest of my family lives in the Atlanta area. I went to Orange Park High School, just south of Jacksonville.

My son had a hard time when I was over here last summer. He worried about me, as any kid would. He watches the news. I don't know how much the news is still showing negative. He knows that I really enjoy what I'm doing and that it's important for Iraqis and Americans as well.

On the Iraqi mood:

I visit project sites often, at least twice a month. I'm interfacing with the local government people and contractors on site.

We have several hundred Iraqi engineers who are part of our engineering team.

About a month or so ago, I got a sense the mood was turning with the Iraqis I talk with daily. When the [constitutional] referendum passed, they were just very excited. It's just very encouraging and uplifting to see the mood, to see how pleased they are to actually vote.

Today is Election Day. I've been monitoring it most of the day. There was one explosion. All things considered, it was very quiet today.

The general manager of Port Khor Az Zubayr made a point of saying to me, we're a team. We had together done a variety of projects that increased the capacity of the port, over double what it was two years ago, to import and export goods. That's a significant boost to the economy.

On the reconstruction:

From postwar to where we are, things are better. And in most cases, from prewar to where we currently are now is better. For people to say we haven't done very much, I think that's because we just haven't somehow gotten the attention.

Over 700 schools have been built. We're talking about millions of people who have potable water now who never had it before. People have electricity in their homes who just never had it. We're doing water treatment projects all over the country. Electrical power projects everywhere. Roads, schools, all throughout the country.

In Baghdad, is power low on days? Yes, on some days it is below what it was prewar. That's because of the insurgency. They interdict some of our lines and the power goes down. That is a constant battle. The same with the flow of oil. Oil will be flowing close to 1.5 to 2 billion gallons of day, then they blow up a line. Those kinds of things are quite a challenge for the Iraqis themselves.

A lot of the reconstruction is done by the U.S. military, working with the local villages and local governance.

On women in Iraq:

Here in Iraq, 63 percent of adult population is women. You're talking about women ministers, several highly respected women in government here. We've done a number of programs ourselves to include women. There are a number of Iraqi women entrepreneurs doing work for us through the reconstruction program.

On the future:

The majority of our projects will be finished by the end of next year. And then what we're looking to do is help the Iraqis go to the next phase of the reconstruction. Bring in other donor nations.

We're working with Iraqi ministries to identify projects for other countries or private investors. On some of the projects, we're just doing design packages and turning the design over to them, so they can very quickly have a project executed by a private-sector company or a donor nation. Maybe a local substation for power distribution or a local water purification project is ideal for donor nations. They're not a billion-dollar project. Maybe $10 [million] to $20 million.

On the pay:

For most of the professionals that we hire, at a minimum they've doubled their salary [in the United States]. And in most cases, 2 1/2 times. If they're private-sector, then they get the U.S. tax break as well. Many of the contractors have been here 18 months and will stay until we're finished.

On her best experience:

The best thing that's happened is going out and visiting the projects. We went to this primary health care clinic six weeks ago. Boys came up and they were just yelling and saying thank you and giving us the thumbs up. They were so happy. It was great.

On the food:

Most of us eat in the dining facility and cafeteria. It's called the DFAC. It's pretty much American food: steak, meat loaf, spaghetti - different every night of the week. It would be nice if every now and again they served us some Iraqi food.

On watching the money:

It's a large program. We've got a team here working very diligently [to see] that we do get the value for the American taxpayer dollar. But I can't tell you there has not been some fraud. There has been some, and there has been some abuse. That happens all over the world. It is very unfortunate.

By and large, the program is going well. I do believe, for the value of American dollars being paid, we really are making a significant contribution.