ENR Southeast's 2010 Owner of the Year: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
... facilities and all necessary infrastructure for the entire 450-acre Fort Stewart site.
Turner Construction Co. of Huntsville, Ala., will break ground this spring on a $333-million, 745,000-sq-ft, 70-bed hospital at Fort Benning, Ga., representing the Savannah District’s largest contract award in fiscal year 2009. Completion is expected in summer 2013.
For the Corps’ Mobile District, Hensel Phelps of Orlando is building a $346-million 7th Special Forces Group Complex and the $168.8-million F-35 Joint Strike Fighter National Training Center, both at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida.
Civil The Corps has $660 million in civil projects under way in Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas.
After years of the state of Florida taking the lead on actually funding Everglades restoration projects, the Jacksonville District of the Corps has begun several projects under the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan, approved in the 2000 Water Resources Development Act. The 30-year, $9.5-billion plan specified a 50-50 partnership between Florida and the federal government.
However, the state has spent about $2.6 billion, mostly on land acquisition, and the federal government $400 million, according to Engineering News-Record. An interagency master agreement signed by the Corps and South Florida water Management District in August has addressed persistent issues related to cost-sharing, operations, maintenance, repair and oversight and allowed Corps projects to move forward.
The Corps awarded Kiewit Southern Co. of Sunrise, Fla., an $81-million contract to build a 1-mi bridge that will replace a portion of the Tamiami Trail that had blocked natural water flow through the Everglades. Kiewit also will raise and reinforce an additional 9.7 miles of the road.
In January, the Corps broke ground on a $53-million project to restore the Merritt Canal area of the Picayune Strand Restoration Project. Stimulus dollars funded $40 million of the project. Harry Pepper and Associates of Jacksonville will construct a pump station, install 55 plugs in 13.5 miles of canals originally dug to provide flood protection to an abandoned residential project and remove 95 miles of crumbling roads.
The Jacksonville District continues work on rehabilitating the 70-year-old Herbert Hoover Dike, a 30-mi-long flood-control structure that encircles Lake Okeechobee. It also provides a backup water supply for Southeastern Florida. The Corps has let several contracts, including $28.9 million to Bauer Foundation Corp. of Clearwater, Fla., for construction of a seepage cutoff wall. The dike rehab project received $56 million in fiscal year 2008, $74 million in fiscal year 2009 and $122.8 million for 2010.
The Jacksonville District is also overseeing work on the $375 million Portuguese Dam in Puerto Rico. It has 17 beach renourishment projects in Florida and ongoing dredging operations at Florida’s ports, the Mayport Naval Station in Jacksonville, the Kings Bay/Fernandina Harbor Entrance Channel serving the Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay in Georgia and the intracoastal waterway.
The Savannah District is working on a harbor deepening project in Brunswick, Ga., and is evaluating an expansion of Savannah Harbor, a strategic launch site for the 3rd Infantry Division out of Fort Stewart.
Useful Sources
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, South Atlantic Division http://www.sad.usace.army.mil/
Jacksonville District http://www.saj.usace.army.mil/
Savannah District http://www.sas.usace.army.mil/
Mobile District http://www.sam.usace.army.mil/
Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan http://www.evergladesplan.org/index.aspx