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Property Acquisition Allows $1.2B Asian Carp Prevention Project to Move Forward in Illinois

The $1.15-billion project is a partnership between the Corps and the states of Illinois and Michigan and is structured across three construction increments. Increment I is funded through a cost-share agreement unlocking $274 million in federal funds, including $226 million from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, along with $114 million in state funding.

The contract, awarded April 11 by the Corps Rock Island District, is the second and final construction award under the project’s Increment I, completing work begun under a $15.5-million site preparation and bedrock removal contract issued in November 2024 to Miami Marine Services. That phase was completed in July 2025.

The deterrents serve as a first line of defense against invasive species and include an automated barge-clearing system, a bubble curtain and an acoustic deterrent, along with support facilities and an upstream boat ramp, said the district.

The systems are scheduled to come online in summer 2028, according to Corps project records, with work under the Brennan contract expected to be completed by April 2029.

Remaining work will be delivered under two future construction increments. Increment II includes a flushing lock, right descending bank wall and channel rock excavation, while Increment III will add an electric deterrent, engineered channel acoustic system, structural channel components and downstream boat ramp.

The flushing lock is not set to operate until fall 2031 at the earliest, with the full engineered channel following about one year later.

Rendering shows the planned layout of the Brandon Road Interbasin Project in Joliet, Ill., where the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is installing layered deterrents—including acoustic systems, bubble curtains and an electric barrier—to block invasive species from reaching the Great Lakes.

Site map courtesy of US Army Corps of Engineers

Project management was transferred from the Rock Island District to the Detroit District on April 9. ENR has previously reported on the project, including a funding-related delay in early 2025 tied to a postponed property rights closing and a subsequent White House memorandum in May 2025 affirming federal support.

The Brandon Road project is designed to prevent invasive carp and other species from reaching Lake Michigan through the Illinois Waterway system, protecting a Great Lakes ecosystem that underpins a multibillion-dollar regional economy tied to fisheries, shipping and recreation.

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Additional Corps, Navy Awards Advance Infrastructure Work

In California, R2BUILD, Irvine, Calif., received an $18.9-million contract from the Corps’ Sacramento District to construct new facilities at Englebright Dam, including a 5,000-sq-ft headquarters building and a 4,200-sq-ft maintenance shop with a storage mezzanine. Completion is scheduled for March 2028.

The Corps also awarded an $11.7-million contract to DMYLES Inc., Niagara Falls, N.Y., to dredge about 250,000 cu yd of sediment from the upper Cuyahoga River at Cleveland Harbor in two seasonal windows this year—May 15 through June 30 and Oct. 1 through Nov. 30. The Corps’ Buffalo District has cited the dredging as essential to supporting nearly $789 million in regional business revenue and labor income. The harbor was last dredged in 2025, when 255,651 cu yd of material were removed.

The Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command awarded a combined $100-million indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, multiple-award construction contract to six firms for new construction, repair, alteration and demolition at Naval Station Rota in Spain, and potentially other facilities in that country and Portugal through March 2034. Thirteen offers were received.

An initial $4.9-million task order was issued to Sociedad Española de Montajes Industriales SA for major interior and exterior renovation of a bowling facility at the base.

Also on April 14, Baker Jacobs JV, Pittsburgh, won a $95-million firm-fixed-price IDIQ contract through April 2031 for multidiscipline architect-engineer services across NAVFAC Atlantic’s worldwide area of operations, for which there were six qualification packages.