$56M Awarded For Dam Repairs

The Army Corps of Engineers has awarded the final round of contracts for repairs throughout the Missouri River basin following the flood of 2011. 

The final repair bill for the Corps’ Omaha District totaled $360 million. Levee rehabilitation work came to $160 million and repairs to damages at the six mainstem dam projects totaled $200 million. The work on 15 levee systems is expected to be complete by the spring of 2013. Completion of work on the dams will take a year or more longer.

According to a release from the Omaha District, examples of repair work include spillway repairs, under seepage control systems, repairs to Corps-owned levees that were scoured during the flood, relief wells, retaining walls, toe drains and other erosion repairs.

Six projects totaling more than $56 million were awarded for construction at the Fort Peck Dam and power plant. Fort Peck Project manager John Daggett said several of the contracts are multi-year repairs and are scheduled for completion in 2015. 

The spillway plunge pool suffered heavy erosion during the record water releases of 2011. A repair contract for $33,897,765 went to ASI Construction, a contractor specializing in major water resource projects with headquarters in Pueblo West, Colo. This project is expected to last into 2015.

Repair of the spillway gates, a job that will cost $6,626,755, was awarded to J.F. Brennan, marine contractors in La Crosse, Wis.

Work on spillway drains and support facility roads will be done by DRL Corporation, a construction company in Oxford Mass., for $1,693,000.

Crack repair on the mile-long spillway surface costing $646,243 will be done by American Contracting of Fort Collins, Colo., a business that specializes in federal and state building contracting projects.

Daggett said these four projects are being funded through the Disaster Relief Appropriations Act of 2012. The other two projects are not directly related to the big flood and are not funded by this act. 

Repair of recreation roads is a multi-year contract paid out of general operation and maintenance funds, Daggett said. Over a five-year period, $1,500,000 has been authorized but only $150,000 has been awarded for FY2012. Bailey Construction of Belgrade will do the work.

Finally, a total rehabilitation of a turbine generator has been ongoing for a couple of years, Daggett said. Getting Unit 2 back into plumb is a major project that requires producing a design and doing a model test first. The actual work on site will begin in 2014. Unit 2 is one of five turbine generators at Fort Peck. Voith Hydro, Inc. of York, Pa., has won the $13,122,461 contract. According to the company website, Voith Hydro’s North American operations are home to one of the world’s largest dedicated hydro turbine equipment manufacturing facilities. According to Daggett, the contract could expand to $17.1 million if all options are exercised.

“Getting these contracts out the door is a huge milestone because the basin sustained millions of dollars in damages and the levee system and our mainstem dam projects are our first line of defense against flooding,” said Bret Budd, chief of the Omaha District Systems Restoration Team. “Though conditions have been much drier this year, the plus side is that it will allow us to get in and make a good amount of headway on some of these projects, giving us a bit more flexibility as we work to meet project deadlines.”