7 Apr 2024

Contract Award | Seepage Multiple Award Task Order Contract

This project is a Multiple Award Task Order Contract (MATOC) for seepage projects throughout the Memphis District. Typical construction task orders may include seepage berm construction, relief well construction, and all associated tasks with each of these construction processes as designated in each contract. The work on each task order will consist of furnishing all plant, labor, and materials for the work to be performed.

6 Oct 2023

USACE installs temporary pumps to alleviate seepage at Isabella Lake

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Sacramento District awarded a contract for the installation of a temporary pump system at Isabella Dam in Lake Isabella, California, on Sept. 28, 2023, to increase the capacity of the existing pump system and redirect seepage back into the lake.

15 Sep 2022

Big Island Seepage Remediation Project substantially complete

Congratulations to the Memphis District for completing a seepage remediation construction project on July 16, 2022. This much-needed project reduced seepage along the St. Francis River levee. Seepage remediation berms help prevent water from passing under levees, which can later lead to sand boils and threaten the overall integrity of the flood protection system.

8 Aug 2022

$1.8M contract awarded, add’ l protection for agriculture, communities

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Memphis District recently awarded a construction contract for a Seepage Remediation Project in Coahoma County, Sherard, Mississippi. The project will be accomplished in partnership with the Yazoo-Mississippi Delta Levee Board of Mississippi and will address four miles of the Yazoo-Delta Levee system’s System 21 – Segment 26.

2 Dec 2021

Groundbreaking, ribbon-cutting, to celebrate project start, completion

The Memphis District held a ribbon-cutting ceremony and a groundbreaking ceremony on Nov. 17, 2021, to celebrate two critical construction projects in Tennessee and Kentucky. District Commander Col. Zachary Miller, district leadership, and the project delivery team members met with project partners in Ridgely, Tennessee, for a ribbon-cutting ceremony. The celebratory event was held to acknowledge the completion of an essential levee restoration and berm construction project. Immediately following the ceremony, district leadership and project team members traveled to the event site and met with the project partner in Hickman, Kentucky, for a groundbreaking.

29 Sep 2021

Backward Erosion Testing: Magnolia Levee

Abstract: Using a confined flume device, an experimental study investigated the critical horizontal gradient of soils obtained from a site identified as potentially vulnerable to backward erosion piping (BEP). Tests were conducted on glacial outwash material obtained from a sand and gravel quarry in the vicinity of Magnolia Levee in the community of Magnolia, OH. The two bulk samples collected from the quarry had similar grain-size distributions, grain roundness, and depositional environments as the foundation materials beneath the levee. Samples were prepared at various densities and subjected to gradual increases of flow in a wooden flume with an acrylic top until BEP was observed. The critical average horizontal gradient ranged from 0.21 to 0.30 for a bulk sample with a coefficient of uniformity of 1.6, while tests conducted on a bulk sample with a coefficient of uniformity of 2.5 yielded critical average horizontal gradients of 0.31 to 0.36. The critical average gradients measured during these tests compared favorably to values in the literature after applying adjustments according to Schmertmann’s method.

28 Sep 2021

Backward Erosion Progression Rates from Small-Scale Flume Tests

Abstract: Backward erosion piping (BEP) is an internal erosion mechanism by which erosion channels progress upstream, typically through cohesionless or highly erodible foundation materials of dams and levees. As one of the primary causes of embankment failures, usually during high pool events, the probability of BEP-induced failure is commonly evaluated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for existing dams and levees. In current practice, BEP failure probability is quantitatively assessed assuming steady state conditions with qualitative adjustments for temporal aspects of the process. In cases with short-term hydraulic loads, the progression rate of the erosion pipe may control the failure probability such that more quantitative treatment of the temporal development of erosion is necessary to arrive at meaningful probabilities of failure. This report builds upon the current state of the practice by investigating BEP progression rates through a series of laboratory experiments. BEP progression rates were measured for nine uniform sands in a series of 55 small-scale flume tests. Results indicate that the pipe progression rates are proportional to the seepage velocity and can be predicted using equations recently proposed in the literature.

13 Apr 2021

Memphis District celebrates New Madrid stormwater ditch replacement project with ribbon-cutting ceremony

The Memphis District held a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate a fully functioning stormwater ditch replacement project in the New Madrid, Missouri area, on Apr. 12, 2021. A $3.4 million contract was awarded for two work areas to Tarpan Construction LLC., on Aug. 29, 2019.

21 Jan 2021

USACE awards $29.5 million construction contract for Sacramento River levee improvements

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Sacramento District awarded a $29.5 million construction contract on January 15 to Nordic Industries Inc. of Olivehurst, for 1.8 miles of levee improvements at four sites along the Sacramento River East Levee. Construction in 2021 will entail installation of seepage cutoff walls on both sides of Business 80/Highway 50 just upstream of Miller Park, on the south side of the little pocket, and on the north side of the big pocket.

24 Sep 2020

Study of Sand Boil Development at Kaskaskia Island, IL, Middle Mississippi River Valley

Abstract: Mississippi River flooding in 2013 and 2016 caused severe underseepage and development of several medium to large high-energy sand boils behind the landside levee toe at Kaskaskia Island, IL. This levee system is located between St. Louis and Cape Girardeau, MO, and is part of the Kaskaskia Island Drainage and Levee District on the Middle Mississippi River. Flooding on the Mississippi River in 2013 and 2016 was below the design flowline for this levee. This report documents a case history study into the causes of seepage, piping, and sand boil development at a levee reach at Kaskaskia. Site-specific geotechnical data were collected and evaluated to determine the causes for poor performance at the studied levee reach locations. Data collected involved design documents, geologic and geotechnical borings, closely spaced cone-penetrometer tests (CPTs), electrical resistivity surveys, laboratory soil testing of sand boil ejecta, CPT samples from targeted stratigraphic horizons in the subsurface, and both piezometer and river-stage data. These data indicate sand boils present within this levee reach involved a chronic seepage condition that became progressively worse through time. This condition was directly related to the underlying site geology, namely the top stratum thickness and the depositional environment in this levee reach.