The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development has given the green light for Boh Bros. Construction to resume suspended activities on the $803-million I-10 Twin Spans bridges in New Orleans. The DOTD has approved use of a modified procedure to prevent girders from rolling, which occurred on Oct. 30 when a girder rolled off a bent during a deck-form flipping operation, sending 10 workers into the water, critically injuring two and killing Eric Troy Blackmon, 44, a foreman and 11-year Boh employee. “We have not determined why the girder rolled off the bridge, but we are confident that these new
Construction is beginning on the largest design-build civil works project in the history of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, a $695-million barrier designed to protect New Orleans from storm surges similar to that generated by Hurricane Katrina, which inundated the low-lying city in 2005. Slide Show Photo: Angelle Bergeron / ENR Surge barrier to protect New Orleans is the largest design-build job in Corps history. Related Links: Behind the Scenes in a Casting Yard Photo: Angelle Bergeron / ENR Mike Spruill Sr. says all his casting jobs post-Katrina are simply bigger. Barrier piles are 140 ft long. The Inner
After more than 30 years of national and international consulting, Bob Sternhell, principal of Solutient Inc., New Orleans, is well versed in the intricacies of working with government agencies. His services include handling all the documents and transactions needed to capture federal risk mitigation grants after disasters so local governments, construction crews and homeowners can get to work. photo: Angelle Bergeron Sternhell has made a specialty of helping localities navigate the bureaucracy of landing federal risk mitigation grants for homeowners. FEMA The federal government declares disasters frequently, with Texas, California, Florida, Oklahoma, New York and Louisiana the leaders. Related Links:
Neither Bob Sternhell nor Bill Petty were interested in residential construction until the slow pace of re�building after Hurricane Katrina found them joining forces to elevate more homes around New Orleans than all other contractors combined. Photo: Angelle Bergeron/ENR Raising homes saves more than it costs. Related Links: Hazard Mitigation: Turning Good Intentions into Good Work Petty, president of the local division of Walton Construction Co., Kansas City, Mo., earlier this year formed Walton Mit�igation Services, a wholly owned Wal�ton subsidiary. He then joined with with Sternhell, CEO of Solutient Inc., a local information-technology firm, to form a risk-mitigation program-management
Louisiana has secured a $1.5 billion, 30-year loan from the federal government that will allow the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to bring the $14.3-billion Hurricane and Storm Damage Risk Reduction System (HSDRRS) to 100-year levels by 2011. "While most Corps Civil Works projects are cost-shared, because of the special circumstances facing Louisiana after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, we were able to take advantage of a rarely-used law that allows the United States to pay the full cost up front, giving the state 30 years to repay their share," says John Paul Woodley, assistant secretary of the Army for
Ongoing repairs at the infamous site of New Orleans’ 17th Street Canal levee breach have an added wrinkle that sets the project apart from other hurricane protection repairs around the city: The site is a potential treasure trove of forensic evidence for lawsuits filed by victims of the flooding.
Engineers investigating canal levee and floodwall failures in New Orleans are going back to the toolbox after crews pulling sheetpile at one breach site found that non-invasive tests, which indicated the pilings were 7 feet too short, were wrong.