If a storm surge threatens New Orleans from Lake Pontchartrain this hurricane season, a hefty, cellular-style cofferdam will reduce the risk of it pushing into the Inner Harbor Navigation Canal and flooding areas of the city. Photo By Angelle Bergeron Alberici’s circular-cell cofferdams eliminated the need for a 25,000-cu-yd tremie seal slab Photo Courtesy Of USACE Related Links: Seabrook Floodgate Complex: Design Saves Time, Cost and Concrete The interim structure designed by Alberici Constructors, St. Louis, Mo., will allow the contractor to build the permanent Seabrook Floodgate Complex in the dry. Two rows of circular-cell cofferdams now close the canal
By this time next year, CBY Design Builders anticipates employing an estimated 350 workers on the $675- million, 44-month contract to construct permanent canal closures and pump stations at New Orleans' three outfall canals for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The USACE Hurricane Protection Office in New Orleans announced the award of the design-build, firm-fixed-price contract on April 13. CBY—a joint venture of CDM, Cambridge, Mass., Brasfield & Gorrie, Birmingham, Ala., and Yates Construction, Philadelphia, Miss.—beat out six other contracting teams to win. The competition included various pairings of well-known engineering companies: Weston, Archer Western, Kiewit, Arcadis, HNTB, Bechtel,
Since 2005, federal government has invested $14.6 billion to improve perimeter protections around New Orleans to reduce the risk from hurricane storm surge. Many of the new or improved elements of the 350-mile-long system include features designed to reduce the cost of operation and maintenance. Photo: Angelle Bergeron Thousands of steel batter piles bracing the IHNC surge protection barrier are sheathed in neoprene jackets to increase life and reduce maintenance. Related Links: Keeping Up Defenses Power Pump: GIWW WCC on Its Way to Completion “The Corps went to great lengths to reduce O&M costs for the local sponsor,” says Colonel
A subcontractor’s employee on an eastern New Orleans pump station project died April 12 from crushing wounds sustained in an accident. William Morgan, 32, of Abita Springs, La. died from injuries including a crushed chest. He was working on a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project in eastern New Orleans. Morgan was an employee of Great Southern Dredging, Inc., Mandeville, La. a sub-contractor to a joint venture of Archer Western, Atlanta, Ga. and Alberici, St. Louis, Mo., which holds a $300 million contract with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The work includes widening and elevating five miles of earthen
Contractors on the $453-million superstructure erection portion of the $1.2-billion Huey P. Long Bridge widening project in New Orleans broke their own record when they lifted and skidded into place a 528-ft. long, 2,758-ton steel truss in 8.5 hours April 9. Photo: Angelle Bergeron The vertical, 102-ft lift of the 2,758-ton steel truss was accomplished in 4.5 hours. The strand jacks lifted an average of 23 ft per hour, as opposed to 17 ft per hour on the previous two lifts as contractors capitalized on experience. Photo: Angelle Bergeron Joint venture contractor MTI used four, 900-ton strand jacks to raise
As New Orleans' complex $14.6-billion storm-surge risk reduction system—which was federally funded, designed and constructed—races toward substantial completion, local stakeholders now are asking if the federal government will help them maintain it. Photo: Courtesy Of USACE New Complex drives largest interior drainage pump house in the world. The facility is new to the system, as is the O&M bill. Photo: Courtesy Of USACE Complex sector gates on federal waterways are built under emergency provisions that will leave locals footing the O&M bill. Related Links: New Orleans Flood Defenses Detailed With Operations and Maintenance In Mind The U.S. Army Corps of
New Orleans has a better defense should another big storm hit the city. But it’s never going to be completely safe. JoEllen Darcy (left), assistant secretary of the Army for civil works, speaking in New Orleans. At right are Gen. Robert Van Antwerp, chief of Engineers for the Corps of Engineers and Colonel Edward Fleming, commander of the Corps� New Orleans districts. “You can’t eliminate risk no matter where you are,” said Jo Ellen Darcy, assistant secretary of the Army for Civil Works, at a March 22 press conference in New Orleans. “What we are doing here is buying down
Six weeks ahead of schedule, contractors for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers placed a 140-ton, steel vertical lift gate near the south end of an 1.8-mile-long storm surge barrier nearing completion in New Orleans. The placement marks the first closure of three openings on the surge barrier. It represents a significant milestone toward closing the barrier and having hurricane protections in place by the 2011 hurricane season. Manson Gulf LLC, Houma, La., used a 500-ton ringer crane for the March 24 installation of the gate where the Lake Borgne Inner Harbor Navigation Canal surge barrier crosses the Bayou Bienvenue
New Orleans has a better defense should another big storm hit the city. But it’s never going to be completely safe. JoEllen Darcy (left), assistant secretary of the Army for civil works, speaking in New Orleans. At right are Gen. Robert Van Antwerp, chief of Engineers for the Corps of Engineers and Colonel Edward Fleming, commander of the Corps’ New Orleans districts. “You can’t eliminate risk no matter where you are,” said Jo Ellen Darcy, assistant secretary of the Army for Civil Works, at a March 22 press conference in New Orleans. “What we are doing here is buying down
Plus Concrete, Inc., a subsidiary of RMD Holdings, Ltd., New Haven, Mich., began work March 10 on Phase Two of the $6.7-million rehabilitation of about 3.5 miles of Magazine Street in New Orleans. The project is part of the $118-million South Louisiana Submerged Roads Program (SRP), a comprehensive program to repair and resurface roughly 56 miles of roads in the Greater New Orleans area that were damaged as a result of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. RMD Holdings has six contracts for projects in the SRP. Photo: DOTD The city of New Orleans contributed funding to install new blue