Critical Efforts to Improve Hurricane Protection and Protect Coastal Areas Continue in Southern Louisiana

 

Nearly a year and a half after taking on the role of assisting the federal government in its efforts to reconstruct hurricane-protection infrastructure in the greater New Orleans area, the engineering firms Evans-Graves Engineers (www.evans-graves.com), PBS&J (www.pbsj.com), and HDR (www.hdrinc.com) have been re-selected by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to provide program and project management support for its South Louisiana Water Resources Program. Encompassing hurricane protection and ecosystem restoration, the program includes levees, floodwalls, floodgates, and pump stations, as well as coastal protection measures.

The work to be carried out by the USACE is currently budgeted at more than $14.6 billion, most of which is scheduled to be complete by 2011. Executed through the Corps’ New Orleans District, the contract provides support to multiple USACE organizations, including Task Force Hope, the Hurricane Protection Office (HPO), the Protection and Restoration Office (PRO), and the New Orleans District itself.

With their selection, the three firms will provide services in the following disciplines: program management, project management, construction management, coastal restoration, environmental compliance, general engineering, GIS analysis, cost estimating, and scheduling. A five-year, $150-million, indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract, the agreement includes an initial base year and options to renew for four additional one-year periods.

Now well into its second year, the South Louisiana Water Resources Program has four main areas of focus: levees and floodwalls, permanent pump stations, repair and storm-proofing of existing pump stations, and navigable control structures in the Inner Harbor Navigation Canal (IHNC), which facilitates navigation between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain. Whereas existing pump stations received much of the attention during the program’s first year, the second year will see increased focus on levee and floodwall construction, as several contracts for such projects have been let. Meanwhile, preliminary design is under way for permanent pump stations at the mouths of three outfall canals and for the IHNC facilities, which include constructing navigable flood-control gates near the Seabrook Bridge on Lake Pontchartrain and near the confluence of the IHNC and the Gulf Inter-Coastal Waterway.

Within South Louisiana’s coastal areas, the program aims to restore the system of wetlands, marshes, and natural ridges that afford protection from storm surges and other damaging effects of hurricanes.

“The aim of this program is to construct the system to achieve a 100-year level of hurricane protection by the start of the 2011 hurricane season,” said Brett Perry, PBS&J’s program manager for the HPO. “This endeavor is critical to restoring the people’s faith and confidence in order to rebuild and secure the future for southeast Louisiana.”

“The work here in the New Orleans area is of historic proportions, akin to the Manhattan project,” said Duane Gapinski, HDR’s program manager for Task Force Hope. “Clearly, it is the USACE’s largest civil works project in recent history, and providing flood protection to the vital Port of New Orleans is essential to maintain the nation’s economic vitality.”

Evans-Graves is the primary contractor, and PBS&J and HDR serve as subcontractors. However, the three companies are working together as if they were a joint venture, with approximately 100 staff members from the three firms working within the USACE’s participating organizations. “Our success has been predicated on the outstanding teamwork we demonstrate on a daily basis,” Gapinski said. “We are not Evans-Graves, we are not PBS&J, and we are not HDR. We are the team. We all work together to best serve our client and get this important work done.”