As oil company and government task-force teams struggled futilely for another week to control an offshore oil leak spewing an estimated 5,000 barrels per day into the Gulf of Mexico, forces on land prepared to mitigate the damage when the toxic spill comes ashore. On May 11, Congress commenced hearings on the disaster. On the same day, the federal government began to apply lessons learned from the April 20 disaster. The Obama administration tasked the National Academy of Engineering with running a technical, independent investigation. The U.S. Dept. of the Interior froze offshore drilling permits and announced a restructuring of

A long-standing, but unfunded desire to restore Louisiana’s barrier islands may be fulfilled if British Petroleum agrees to foot the bill for a proposal to dredge and build up long-eroded islands to stop oil from encroaching on sensitive marshlands. The Chandeleur Islands near the mouth of the Mississippi may be nourished with dredge spoil to shield wetlands from the oil spill spreading in the Gulf. “Right now, it’s just talk, in the infant stages,” says Chris Accardo, chief of operations division for the New Orleans District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The Corps would have to issue a permit for

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is exploring the potential of another water diversion to keep oil flow from coming ashore. By this weekend, the Corps anticipates the Bohemia Spillway, off the coast of Plaquemines Parish, La., will reach a flow of 800,000 cubic ft. per second. “Spillway is kind of a misnomer,” as the low area that runs from mile 25 from head of passes to mile 40 is not a manmade water control structure, says Chuck Shadie, chief of the Corps’ watershed division in Vicksburg, Miss.  “It is a low spot in the natural bank on the east

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is initiating emergency permitting procedures to expedite cleanup in anticipation of oil coming ashore from the April 20 explosion of British Petroleum’s Deepwater Horizon rig about 50 miles off the Louisiana coast. Corps districts in Alabama, Mississippi and Louisian indicate that they have cut the normally lengthy permitting process to 24-48 hours as authorized under Nationwide Permit 20, which covers those activities subject to the National Oil and Hazardous Pollution Contingency Plan and are performed in accordance with the Spill Control and Countermeasures Plan. Basically, any oil spill cleanup excavation, dredging or remediation in

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers hopes to use water diversion structures to push water out of sensitive wetland areas and keep away oil that has been drawing near shore since the April 20 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig about 50 miles off the Louisiana coast. In essence, the Corps is investigating if the rains behind the Nashville flood could help save the Louisiana Coast from the disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The unprecedented oil spill is subject to rough winds and tidal flows. Faced with these complications, Chuck Shadie, the Mississippi Valley Division head of

The warm, optimistic glow cast by the city of Dallas’ $2.5- to $3-billion, comprehensive Trinity River Corridor project is partially shadowed by the findings of Periodic Inspection No. 9. The ninth, five-year-cycled U.S. Army Corps of Engineers levee inspection in 2009 left Dallas with a failed rating, loss of levee certification, exclusion from Federal Emergency Management Agency flood plain maps, more than $8.4 million in operation and maintenance repairs, a $25.5-million contract award for a thorough, third-party levee assessment, and concern over whether any of those short-term funds will apply to the long-term federally certified flood control program. “The city

By fall, kayakers will enjoy the new waterfalls and whitewater in the Trinity River as part of the recreation portion of the $2.5- to $3-billion city of Dallas Trinity River Corridor project that is 20 mi long and encompasses 10,000 acres. The comprehensive plan includes projects for flood control, transportation, recreation, environmental restoration and economic development. Ark Contracting Services, Kennedale, will begin this month a $3.7-million contract to build concrete “speed bumps,” about 150 ft wide and about 250 ft apart in the river that will create a 3-ft drop and wave action that should thrill kayakers, says Rebecca Rasor,

The Fort Worth area has grown a lot since the historic 1949 Trinity River flood, which prompted creation of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Fort Worth District and construction of the existing levee system. Urbanization has resulted in the addition of parking lots, airports and many hard surfaces that prevent absorption of water into ground soil and rivers, creating the opportunity for higher Trinity River levels and increased risk of flooding. “We have outgrown our existing levee system, and we needed a plan that will take us into the next 50 to 100 years,” says Woody Frossard, project manager

By mid-July, Conti Federal Services Inc., Edison, N.J., will begin repairing jetties off the Texas coast that were damaged during Hurricane Ike as the first task order of a $495-million Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity Multiple Award Task Order Contract that was issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on March 19. Photo: NASA Hurricane Ike as seen from the International Space Station. “We’ll be repairing jetties along the entire coast of Texas, from Louisiana to the Mexico border,” says Anthony LaBato, Conti’s vice president. The corps’ IDIQ MATOC contract includes design-build and design-bid-build projects for marine- and land-based horizontal construction

A massive,1.7-million-cu-yd, deep-soil-mixing project is powering up in eastern New Orleans, and veterans of the technique say it’s probably the largest such project ever undertaken. Photo: Angelle Bergeron At 1.7 million cu yd, deep-soil-mixing job nearly triples the volume of Boston’s Big Dig. var so = new FlashObject("http://natalie.feedroom.com/construction/natoneclip/Player.swf","Player", "300", "169", "8", "#FFFFFF");so.addVariable("skin", "natoneclip");so.addVariable("site", "construction");so.addVariable("fr_story", "bf145635c641e16b70fe8531bcc9d0476f7d3458&rf");so.addVariable("hostURL", document.location.href);so.addParam("quality", "high");so.addParam("allowFullScreen", "true");so.addParam("menu", "false");so.write("flashcontent"); Joint-venture partners Archer Western Contractors, Atlanta, Ga., and Alberici Enterprises, Overland, Mo., are strengthening a levee maintained by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers so it can be increased in height to +28 ft from its current +17 ft without widening