News Stories

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Archive: 2020
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  • August

    ENFIRE Refresher Course Produces Renewed Contingency Preparedness

    The 11th Engineers have concluded a refresher course held during the week of Aug. 3 designed to leverage the use of ENFIRE, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) rapid data collecting tool kit. Instruction set, reconnaissance, and surveying (commonly known as ENFIRE) allows Far East District (FED) Soldiers and civilians to conduct reconnaissance with modernized collection and dissemination technology from a safe distance, making it possible to deliver data with a greater level of precision than ever before.
  • Lock steps: Dewatering is the first step before lock repairs can begin

    Did you ever wonder why it takes so long to repair a lock? Check out the dewatering process for the Ortona Lock and Dam maintenance repairs through a series of photos of the event in 2018. It's a LOT more involved than just closing the lock and doing repairs!
  • Huntsville Center program keeps service members on target

    The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Engineering and Support Center, Huntsville is the designated Range and Training Land Program Mandatory Center of Expertise.
  • Gathright Dam’s second pulse release of 2020 set for Wednesday

    COVINGTON, Va. – Gathright Dam operators are scheduled to carry out the year’s second water-pulse release from Lake Moomaw on Wednesday. It will take place between 6 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.
  • Brady Beckman Recognized at Senior Leader Conference

    Brady Beckman was awarded the Meritorious Civilian Service Medal for exhibiting superior leadership of the Regional Rivers Repair Fleet during successive record O&M years of Workload and the COVID-19 pandemic. His steady leadership has ensured the fleet continues to execute their critical mission in a safe manner. He diligently managed the execution of the FY19 Major Maintenance and Repair Schedule despite unseasonably high water during most of the repair season. He recommended and carried out needed changes to the schedule to maximize effectiveness of crews and ensured project budgets were not exceeded.
  • Far East District participates in job fair

    The Far East District supported Camp Humphreys job fair at The Morning Calm Center Aug. 5. The district employs more than 450 individuals in 120 job titles and is the largest public engineering design and construction management agency in the world.
  • The FED Played a Big Part in My Career: A Conversation with Carolyn Spratley

    In a time when the Scientific American newsletter reports that 45% of women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) leave their jobs because of feeling underpaid and unrepresented, Carol A. Spratley, Project Manager for the Korea Program Relocation Office defies this statistic by virtue of her 41 years as an employee of the U S. Army Corps of Engineers. Twenty-one of those years were spent in her most recent of two tours to South Korea in service to the Far East District.
  • Omaha District plays important role in water quality management

    Whether it is fishing, boating, swimming, or other types of water recreation the benefits of the Omaha District’s water quality management program affect outdoor enthusiasts in positive ways – these benefits even extend to water coming from the faucet.
  • Transatlantic Division welcomes new commanding general

    Brigadier General Kimberly M. Colloton assumed the role of Commander and Division Engineer for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Transatlantic Division (TAD), July 24.
  • District awards contract to safeguard railroad bridge on St. Francis River

    Two bridges crossing a major Arkansas waterway were under attack by scouring currents that threatened to undermine the safety of the structures. In response to this potentially dangerous situation, the Memphis District on July 30 issued a repair contract to Polk & Associates. The project consists of repairing a scour site downstream of State Highway 51 Bridge which crosses over the St Francis River at Fisk, Missouri, as well as a Union Pacific Railroad Bridge. These bridges serve communities in Stoddard and Butler Counties, Missouri.

News Releases

Results:
Archive: 2020
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  • 20-055 Corps issues revised Project Master Plans for Little Goose and Lower Monumental

    SNAKE RIVER, Wash. – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Walla Walla District has issued revised Master Plans for the Lower Monumental and Little Goose Projects. Each Master Plan includes a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) and an Environmental Assessment (EA). The Master Plans were updated because the original Master Plans were more than 50 years old and there have been changes in policy and management strategies over that time.
  • Galveston District will be knocking on doors in Orange County to secure rights-of-entry

    The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Galveston District, Real Estate Division will be going door-to-door in Orange County on Oct.15, 2020, to secure rights-of-entry from individual landowners in order to access property as part of the Sabine Pass to Galveston Bay, Texas Coastal Storm Risk Management (CSRM) and Ecosystem Restoration Project. The rights-of-entry are necessary to conduct various investigative activities (surveys, cultural resource investigations, geotechnical investigations). These investigative activities support the transition from conceptual designs to implementable project features and are necessary to continue to move conceptual designs forward to construction and these rights of entry are valid for up to 12 months. Landowners can specify that they want to be called before we access their property. USACE Galveston District personnel, and District-hired contractors, comply with those requests.
  • West Shore Lake Pontchartrain virtual public meeting scheduled

    The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New Orleans District has scheduled a virtual public meeting regarding the West Shore Lake Pontchartrain project. The meeting will be live-streamed on Wednesday, October 21, 2020 at 10 a.m. on the project’s Facebook page.
  • Virtual event will celebrate FishPass project kick off

    FishPass project construction in Traverse City, Michigan, will kick off with a virtual groundbreaking ceremony October 24. This final phase of the Boardman River Ecosystem Restoration Project is primarily funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Great Lakes Restoration Initiative and led by the Great Lakes Commission in partnership with the City of Traverse City, Fisheries and Oceans of Canada, Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa/Chippewa Indians, Great Lakes Fishery Commission, Michigan Department of Natural Resources, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and U.S. Geological Survey. “The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative has provided our agencies continued opportunities to implement sustainable projects throughout the Great Lakes Region,” said Carl Platz, Great Lakes Program Manager for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. “The knowledge we gain from FishPass will not only be utilized throughout the Great Lakes, but it will likely be applied across the nation as well."
  • Estimating the Density of Secretive, At-risk Snake Species on DoD Installations Using an Innovative Approach: IDEASS

    Abstract: The Department of Defense (DoD) expends considerable resources managing and conserving threatened, endangered, or at-risk snake species. Management for these species is often hampered by a lack of basic knowledge regarding their population size and trajectory. The low detectability of most snakes makes it difficult to determine their presence, or to employ traditional methods to estimate abundance. This work demonstrated a novel, simulation-based method, Innovative Density Estimation Approach for Secretive Snakes (IDEASS), for estimating snake density based on systematic road surveys, behavioral observations of snake movement, and spatial movement (radio telemetry) data. This method was used to generate meaningful density estimates for two rare and cryptic snakes of conservation concern, the Southern Hognose and Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake, at Fort Stewart, Georgia. IDEASS was also applied to an existing dataset to retroactively estimate density of a more common species of management concern, the Western Ratsnake, at Fort Hood, Texas. In all three cases, traditional density estimation via visual surveys and capture-mark-recapture (CMR) failed completely due to lack of captures and re-captures, despite extensive field effort. We conclude that IDEASS represents a powerful tool, and in some cases the only viable method, for estimating density of secretive snakes.
  • Red River Structure Physical Model Study

    Abstract: A proposed Red River Structure (RRS), intended to function as one of three gated structures comprising the Fargo-Moorhead Metropolitan Area Flood Risk Management Project, was tested in a general physical model. A 1:40 Froude-scale was applied to model the structure, engineered channels, existing bathymetry/topography in the Red River and overbank areas, and the proposed Southern Embankment. The physical model was used to ensure that the RRS could pass at least 104,300 cfs during the Probable Maximum Flood while maintaining a maximum pool water surface elevation of 923.5 ft. The physical model was also utilized to optimize the approach structure, stilling basin, retaining walls, and erosion protection designs. The physical modeling effort resulted in an optimized stilling basin wall, retaining wall, and end sill geometry/configuration where erosive conditions were not observed outside and adjacent to the stilling basin. Properly designed riprap (St. Paul District’s R470 gradation) proved to be successful in protecting the proposed RRS from potential scour downstream. The modified approach wall design proved to be successful in creating safe approach flow conditions as well as acceptable flow separation patterns. It is recommended that Alternative 3 be the design used going forward.
  • Red River Structure Physical Model Study

    Abstract: A proposed Red River Structure (RRS), intended to function as one of three gated structures comprising the Fargo-Moorhead Metropolitan Area Flood Risk Management Project, was tested in a general physical model. A 1:40 Froude-scale was applied to model the structure, engineered channels, existing bathymetry/topography in the Red River and overbank areas, and the proposed Southern Embankment. The physical model was used to ensure that the RRS could pass at least 104,300 cfs during the Probable Maximum Flood while maintaining a maximum pool water surface elevation of 923.5 ft. The physical model was also utilized to optimize the approach structure, stilling basin, retaining walls, and erosion protection designs. The physical modeling effort resulted in an optimized stilling basin wall, retaining wall, and end sill geometry/configuration where erosive conditions were not observed outside and adjacent to the stilling basin. Properly designed riprap (St. Paul District’s R470 gradation) proved to be successful in protecting the proposed RRS from potential scour downstream. The modified approach wall design proved to be successful in creating safe approach flow conditions as well as acceptable flow separation patterns. It is recommended that Alternative 3 be the design used going forward.
  • The Demonstration and Validation of a Linked Watershed-Riverine Modeling System for DoD Installations – Patuxent Watershed, Maryland

    Abstract: This work evaluated a linked watershed and riverine modeling system for the Patuxent River Watershed, Maryland against observed field data and model output from a watershed model. The performance objectives were computed for streamflow, sediment, total phosphorus, orthophosphorus, total nitrogen, ammonium, and nitrate using daily and monthly average model predictions and measured data. Hydrological Simulation Program – Fortran (HSPF) was used to compute runoff, sediment, and nutrient loadings, whereas the Hydrologic Engineer Center – River Analysis Sys-tem (HEC-RAS) was used to evaluate in-stream flow, channel sedimentation, and the fate/transport of nutrients. Model results were successful for calibration, validation, and management scenario analysis. Contaminants were not simulated for this watershed due to a lack of observed data to compare against. The study identified two implementation issues. First, while the Patuxent River did not experience dry bed conditions, where a stream may be intermittent, one can incorporate a very narrow slot at the low point in the cross-section to numerically keep the channel wet during very low flows. Second, to set up the linked model, there needs to be more observed water quality data to better constrain the HSPF output being used as boundary conditions to the HEC-RAS model.
  • Canyon Lake outlet works fence repairs may impact river access

    Fort Worth District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Officials at Canyon Lake announce today the beginning of work to replace the security fence around the outlet works at Canyon Dam.
  • Middle East District assists planning efforts with Lebanese Armed Forces

    The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Middle East District has been working with the State Department's Office of Defense Cooperation-Lebanon to assist with planning efforts for various military sites for the Lebanese Armed Forces.

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