After a design summit to cut costs, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and its contractors have headed off a possible $150-million to $300-million cost overrun on the $1-billion Gulf Intracoastal Waterway West Closure Complex in New Orleans. The closure complex consists of a strategic storm-surge barrier of walls, levees, gates and pumps to protect the southern flank of the city. It includes navigation gates and what will become the largest pump station in the U.S. Photo: USACE Sheet-pile wall and dolphins for large sector gates on the West Bank Closure Complex were already taking shape in early December. Photo:
The next time there is a levee breach in San Joaquin County, Calif., Ronald Baldwin, the county’s director of emergency operations, would like to have some huge rubber tubes pre-positioned at Interstate underpasses, rail embankments and other strategic locations to contain flooding. Photo: Angelle Bergeron In the arch and PLUG combination, flow is first stopped by floating in the incompressible tube, and the arch then is settled around it to create a cofferdam. PLUG can then be removed and repairs made. Graphic: Oceaneering Inc Photo: Angelle Bergeron The arch-tube configuration can be used to block off larger waterways, as long
A federal court judge in New Orleans who found the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers liable for damages claimed by five residents of an area inundated during Hurricane Katrina in 2005 limits the area to which his decision applies. But Judge Standwood R. Duval Jr. also blasts the Corps for putting lives and property at risk for decades by failing to properly operate and maintain a navigational channel it built between 1956 and 1968 below New Orleans. He further faults the Corps for failing to comply with the National Environmental Protection Act of 1969 for reporting on environmental degradation caused
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is to blame for massive flooding in two areas New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and is liable for damages sought by five plaintiffs living there, a federal court judge in New Orleans ruled Nov. 18. Photo: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Corps’ negligence led to breach in flood protection during Hurricane Katrina, court ruled. Related Links: Text of the Ruling The court ruled earlier that while the Corps was exempt by law from claims for damages caused by failures of flood control structures, it was not exempt from claims for damages caused
Editor’s note: This article was written for our December issue, and went to press on November 5, the day of the shooting at Fort Hood that took the lives of 13 persons and injured some 20 others. Texas Construction offers its deepest sympathies to the families of those injured or killed in the heinous act of violence. Courtesy Randy Cephus/USACE The 45-acre, 32-building Combined Arms Collective Training Facility at Fort Hood. Courtesy Randy Cephus/USACE Fort Hood�s mock village is part of the base�s mobilization mission, which includes training of some 58,000 soldiers from the base as well as outside units
Another behemoth civil works project is taking shape in New Orleans as construction of the $1 billion Gulf Intracoastal Waterway (GIWW) West Closure Complex project rapidly advances. Since receiving the notice to proceed August 4, Gulf Intracoastal Constructors, a joint venture of Omaha-based Kiewit Corp. and Traylor Bros. Inc. of Evansville, Ind., has been working round-the-clock. GIC has already cleared and grubbed most of the 200-acre site, built 4,000 ft of roadway, and excavated 150,000 cu yd of dirt. Photo: Angelle Bergeron Gulf Intracoastal Constructors is driving 1,375, 137 ft-long steel pipe piles for the foundation of the pump station
The confluence of two wars, the growth and reorganization of the U.S. Army and the enormous construction program required to accommodate those demands are the forces driving the federal government’s construction workhorse, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, through its own transformation to become a more efficient program-management machine. Slide Show Photo: Marc Barnes, USACE-Belvoir Integration Office Steelworkers on the $1.77-billion National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency New Campus East project secure a 90-ton truss, 130 ft above the atrium floor. Related Links: An Electronic Chat with Army Corps of Engineers Chief Lt. Gen. Robert L. Van Antwerp Major Boom in Army Construction
As the Army addresses the lifestyle needs and concerns of its soldiers and their families—as defined by a 1983 survey and laid out for resolution in an “Army Family Action Plan”—many residential facilities the Corps of Engineers is designing and building resemble towns and villages rather than military bases. Photo: Marc Barnes, USACE Trend is toward designing bases as communities with more of a hometown feel. Photo: Ronnie Craige, USACE Prefab Purcell Construction Corp., Watertown, N.Y., has two contracts to build six five-story barracks buildings at Fort Lee, Va., using prefabricated structural steel panels. Purcell owns its own fabricating plant
New Orleans, we won’t forget you, President Barack Obama said during a visit to the city October 15. The President and his cabinet will continue to assist the recovery and future protection of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region, both of which he says are critical to the nation’s environmental and economic vitality. He made his pledge while acknowledging the administration has other formidable challenges in reviving the economy and overhauling health care Photo: Angelle Bergeron President Obama reassured the Gulf Coast and New Orleans of his support, and most of the audience cheered him. Photo: Angelle Bergeron “I
In November, installation will begin on the new barrier wall of the Wolf Creek Dam, which the National Dam Safety Program in 2005 gave the highest risk rating for failure. Wolf Creek, Ky. Photo: Angelle Bergeron/ENR Draw down of reservoir allows crews to build protective concrete embankment wall for Wolf Creek Dam. Related Links: Stimulus: A Snapshot of Top Shovel-, Wrench- and Pencil-Ready Projects The $584-million U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Wolf Creek Dam Remediation project in Jamestown, Ky., on the Cumberland River would have come to a screeching halt in July when $54.5 million in fiscal year 2009 funds