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Marine Log Workers
Supervisory Navigation Facility Specialist Caleb Skinner briefs Secretary of the Military for Civil Works Michael L. Connors and Stacey Brown, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Military for Administration and Finances, about operations on the energetic navigation lock Oct. 12, 2023, throughout a tour on the Tennessee River in Grand Rivers, Kentucky. [USACE photo by Lee Roberts]
The Nashville Engineer District lately showcased two of its mega development tasks on the Tennessee River and its hydropower rehabilitation efforts at Barkley Dam on the Cumberland River to the Assistant Secretary of the Military for Civil Works, Michael L. Connors.
Connors and Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Military for Administration and Finances Stacey Brown have been welcomed to the Chickamauga Lock Alternative Venture in Chattanooga, Tenn., the morning of Oct. 12 by Nashville District commander Lt. Col. Robert W. Inexperienced.
They obtained venture updates, toured the energetic lock, and ignored the place Nashville District’s contractor, Shimmick Building, is developing a 600-foot by 110-foot navigation lock chamber and has positioned greater than 200,000 cubic yards or about 80% of the concrete required to finish the venture.In addition they checked out work barges on the upstream facet of Chickamauga Dam the place the contractor, C.J. Mahan, is inserting tremie concrete into drilled shafts on the underside of the river to anchor the piers for the upstream strategy partitions.
Elizabeth Burks, Nashville District Built-in Tasks Workplace chief; Resident Engineer Tommy Lengthy, Venture Supervisor Capt. Joseph Cotton, and Lockmaster Cory Richardson briefed Connors and Brown on present navigation operations, the $245 million lock chamber contract, $60.9 million upstream strategy wall contract, Joint Danger Register success, and scope of future downstream strategy wall and decommissioning contracts.
Connors famous at Chickamauga Lock that visiting tasks helps him notice the challenges that Corps of Engineers districts and contractors face with development tasks. He added that interacting with engineers, venture managers, and contracting officers builds a higher understanding of the problems that helps him with speaking why tasks price a lot, and the advantages of in search of extra environment friendly methods to contract and full tasks.
“The factor you’ll be able to’t get from briefings and attempting to take care of the funds points and all the things else is the complexity of those tasks, and the contracting that we now have to do and the way doing that in several methods can have an effect on the general monetary elements of the venture,” Connors stated.
Connors and Adams boarded a Blackhawk helicopter noon from the one hundred and first Airborne Division’s Fight Aviation Brigade at Fort Campbell, Ky, for an aerial tour of the Tennessee Valley Authority dam tasks downstream and the navigation locks on the Tennessee River that Nashville District operates and maintains.
That afternoon, they toured the Kentucky Lock Addition Venture in Grand Rivers, Kentucky, the place the contractor, Tully Group member Thalle development, is developing the lock chamber for the brand new 1,200-foot by 110-foot navigation lock.
Burks and Resident Engineer Jeremiah Manning, Venture Supervisor Bob Winters, Space Supervisor Mike Looney, and Supervisory Navigation Facility Specialist Caleb Skinner briefed Connors and Adams on present navigation operations, the $380 million lock chamber contract, and scope of future downstream strategy partitions, lock electrical and mechanical options, lock operations buildings and bridges, and web site restoration contracts.
The bigger lock is beneath development as a result of greater than 26 million tons of business cargo and items valued at greater than $10 billion move by means of Kentucky Lock yearly. The common delay for industrial tows by means of the 600-foot energetic navigation lock exceeds 10 hours, a number of the longest delay instances within the system. Tows which can be higher than 600-feet must carry out a time-consuming double lockage, which contributes to the prolonged delays. Whereas the outdated lock can maintain 9 barges, the brand new lock will accommodate 15 barges.
Burks defined how the present lock is just too small to satisfy present and future visitors calls for with out vital delays, and that the Corps of Engineers has remained resilient by means of inflationary impacts, labor will increase, and provide chain points to maintain the development venture transferring ahead.
The VIP guests noticed the energetic lock and walked the total size of the continuing lock chamber development web site, stopping at completely different factors for particular venture updates.
The following morning, they visited the close by powerhouse at Barkley Dam on the Cumberland River to see ongoing rehabilitation work of the hydropower items, which incorporates the rotors, generators, and related gear.
HYDROPOWER
Loren McDonald, Nashville District’s Hydropower Help Department chief, stated the Part 212
Program beneath which the venture is being out carried made it doable to enter into agreements with the Southeastern Energy Administration, and energy desire prospects, to reinvest revenues into updating the principle powertrain elements within the Nashville District’s 9 hydropower vegetation within the Cumberland River Basin.
“Our system on common is 63 years outdated and up till the previous few years have had no main rehabs,” McDonald stated. “For Part 212 we now have 22 energetic tasks occurring throughout the district proper now at $295 million {dollars}.”
The Hydropower Program helps the entire hydropower vegetation and 28 hydropower items, and $1.2 billion value of labor is guided by a 20-plus yr grasp plan. Rehabilitations and repairs have been accomplished on all three items at Heart Hill Dam in Lancaster, Tennessee, and unit 4 at Outdated Hickory Dam, in Hendersonville, Tennessee.
EDUCATIONAL AND IMPRESSIVE
Connors stated his go to to the Nashville District was lengthy overdue. He thanked the groups in any respect three tasks for internet hosting him and offering data he must advocate and make budgetary choices associated to tasks throughout the Corps of Engineers.
“It was extremely instructional and spectacular,” Connors stated. “What I liked most was the vary of very skilled engineers who’ve clearly been with us for 20-plus years, after which the brand new crop of younger venture managers and engineers doing the work. We see that expertise developing – that’s the very best factor to see. The oldsters which can be being skilled are going to place us in a great place transferring ahead many years from now.”
