NEW ORLEANS – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recently awarded an $843,000 contract to Cycle Construction Company, LLC, a Louisiana-based firm, for preconstruction services between South Point and CSX Railroad in New Orleans East.
The five-month contract calls for installing vertical wick drains for water to flow out of the soil. The objective is to reduce the duration of the project by identifying the best spacing for the drains prior to the start of construction. To determine the best spacing, the drains will be monitored to measure the settlement in the foundation.
“The wick drains will accelerate the settlement rate of the foundation beneath the levee along this reach,” said Jason Cade, senior project manager for New Orleans East. “As the foundation consolidates, it will get increasingly stronger and reinforce the levee.”
When construction is complete, the project will reduce the impacts from a storm surge event that has a one percent chance of occurring in any given year.
“We are committed to providing the 100-year level of risk reduction for the greater New Orleans area in 2011,” said Col. Robert Sinkler, Commander of the Hurricane Protection Office. “Each contract that is awarded brings us closer to achieving that goal.”
Release no. 09-068