A.             PROJECT DESCRIPTION                                                     

            Kentucky Lock is located in western Kentucky at Mile 22.4 of the Tennessee River.  A feasibility report completed in 1992 recommended a new 110' x 1200' lock adjacent and landward of the existing 110' x 600' lock.  The project was authorized for construction in WRDA 96 and construction commenced in July 1998.  Based on an expected funding level of $25.2M (Appropriated $30M minus Savings & Slippage), our FY 01 spending plan is provided below:

                        $  4.5M                        In-house design and management

                        $  1.2M                        Other Corps

                        $  0.5M                        TVA in-house

                        $  7.5M                        A/E Contract Design

                        $11.5M                        Construction and Real Estate Acquisition.

B.        GENERAL

Significant activities, issues raised, and decisions made during the month on the project include :

·        General Assessment – The KY Lock team has three main goals for this fiscal year:  1)  complete the Supplemental EIS, 2) award the Bridge Substructure Construction Contract, and 3) award the Upstream Cofferdam Construction Contract.  Through a lot of hard work and dedicated efforts by the whole team, we are on track to complete these three goals this FY.  The project is fortunate to have been provided with adequate funding this year to achieve these goals as well as many other critical tasks to complete this project as fast as possible – and we plan to spend all of it in this FY.

·        Upstream Cofferdam Construction Contract – We made the decision this week to advertise this contract without upstream lock excavation or construction of the Vulcan Haul Road and Disposal Area.  Delayed access through TVA Tower Relocation work; completion of Vulcan easement; possible extended dewatering behind the cofferdam; and being able to advertise the contract sooner are just a few of the many factors considered in making this decision.

·        Construction Field Office – We are planning to issue a contract for construction of this facility this summer.  Options for small business contracting are being evaluated.

·        Tree Removal -  TVA’s contract logger was able to cut all the Indiana Bat suitable trees within our upcoming work limits on the east bank by the 31 March deadline.  Once again, TVA’s Ronnie Cornhill, Jeff Butler, and Ronnie Nanney are to be commended for their efforts to meet this tight timeframe.

Construction activities:

·        TVA Transmission Towers –  The most upstream east bank tower is now complete and all its lines were strung across the canal and energized in March.  Steel erection work on the next downstream tall tower is over one-third complete.  Construction will commence soon on its corresponding powerhouse island tower with line stringing expected by mid-May.  Completion of the total tower relocation efforts is now scheduled for December 2001.

·        West Bank Hwy/RR Embankment – Murray Paving resumed significant construction activities in March.  They finished stripping topsoil on the riverward side of the existing railroad embankment and initiated erosion control/drainage features.  Preparations are being made to initiate the placement of pre-cast sections for the access tunnels and to start fill placement in early April.

C.        PROGRESS FOR THE MONTH:

Environmental

·        Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement –  All comments on this Draft SEIS are due by 16 April.  It has been distributed to all known interested parties and has been posted it in its entirety on the KY Lock website: http://www.orn.usace.army.mil/pao/kylock/.

·        Wetland Mitigation -  The 90% P&S package is being submitted by Hanson Engineers the week of 2 April and will be distributed for review.  A construction contract is planned for this spring.

·        Mussel Mitigation –  The number of tailwater sites being compiled is now up to 500.  The underwater survey work for Kentucky Lake is to commence this spring. 

·        Tailwater Fishing Mitigation –ACE is revising drawings of the fishing jetties as per comments and as per the recent underwater survey.  Upon submittal to the Corps, these drawings will be redistributed for review.  Efforts are on track for TVA to start construction of these jetties and its associated parking lot as soon as possible after the Record of Decision is signed for the SEIS – probably in the June 2001 timeframe. 

WES Navigation Model

Status - All of the known tests for this model have been completed (including additional tests based on 7 March meeting) and efforts to complete its final report are underway.  However, the model will remain available for use throughout the project’s construction to evaluate construction schemes as they are proposed.

Results of Navigation Meeting on 7 March – A meeting with the navigation industry to view conditions with the downstream cofferdam in place and under construction was held on 7 March.  Significant decisions/observations include:

·        The navigation training dike should be installed before cofferdam construction.  Additional modeling should be performed to quantify the benefits of the training dike.

·        Methods for protecting the downstream, riverward corner of the float-in segments will be developed.  Preliminary discussion centered on rounding off the corner or adding some structural elements that would span the gap between the float-in and cellular portions.

·        Use of a helper boat during all applicable phases of the cofferdam construction will be pursued.

·        Steps were identified and will be taken to minimize lock closures.

WES Lock Model

WES plans to reactivate this model with the new upstream middle wall configuration in May.  We will be investigating the affects of this configuration on the thru-sill filling system.

Lock Design

In-house.  The main focus of in-house resources is to manage both A/E and construction contracts needed for critical path items.  Work in support of the Upstream Cofferdam contract is ongoing.  We will continue design work on the features dropped from the Upstream Cofferdam contract.  These include:  Upstream excavation design, Vulcan Haul Road & Disposal Area A/E administration, Anchoring existing lock wall design, Instrumentation of Existing Lock Wall design, Electrical and Mechanical services design, and Area Drainage design.  Also, design of the advance excavation for the Downstream Approach Wall needed in the upcoming bridge substructure contract is under way.  Work is also continuing on the geotechnical drilling program, the support of WES’s Model work, new lock stability, existing lock lower land wall stability, miter gate design, lock intake trashrack design, the Materials DM, and the east bank permanent embankment.

Electrical/Mechanical Design.   The 95% submittal of this DM is expected in May.  The Nashville District asked Harza to focus resources on designs for utility relocations needed for the Upstream Cofferdam contract which has delayed this submittal.  This delay will not have any impact on the overall project schedule.

Upper Approach Walls –  The 90% submittal of the Phase 1 Design Report is on track for a May submittal.  INCA has completed tasks for modifications to the Upper Middle Approach Wall.  Geotechnical Branch is investigating the best method to accomplish drilling needed for the new nose pier location.  The new design was presented to the navigation industry in Vicksburg on 7 March and also at the Corps/TVA semi-annual meeting in Nashville on 14 March.  The industry was agreeable to the new design.

 Miter Gate Design.  Louisville District is continuing work on the Plans & Specifications for this feature and is approximately 85% complete.  Details of the finite element analysis are being refined to correct stress concentrations in the lower girders.  Louisville is finalizing operating strut attachment and bridge details for a May 2001 P&S check by INCA.

As-built Drawings –  The folios containing all the as-built drawings have been signed by TVA and are currently being printed.   All folios and a CD with the drawings with signatures will be delivered in April.

Site Utilities – A review meeting on the 35% submittal was held 14 – 15 March.  A modification to produce plans and specifications for utility relocations necessary for the upstream cofferdam contract was negotiated in March.  The next submittal will be scheduled after impacts of the utility relocation design modification are evaluated.

Site Seismic Criteria – Harza’s 70% submittal has been reviewed without significant comments.  Work for the final document is ongoing.

Upstream Monolith Design – The 30% submittal for this task order is expected either at the end of April or the first of May.  This submittal will confirm the upstream monolith footprint.

Downstream Lock Design -  Huntington District will be designing portions of the downstream end of the lock.  A site familiarization and scoping meeting was held at the site on12 March.  An acceptable proposal for cost and schedule was received from Huntington on 5 April.  They have already begun work on this Phase 1 DDR and plan to complete the load criteria report, complete gravity stability analysis of landward monoliths, complete stability analysis of the sills, initiate stability and thermal analysis of the riverward monoliths interacting with the float-in cofferdam, and make a 30% DDR submittal this FY.

Demolition and Modification of Existing Operations Building – Harza is continuing their efforts on this design.  The 70% submittal is expected in May.

New Operations Building – A 100% DM submittal for this facility was received from Harza and review has been completed.  Incorporation of these comments will finalize this task order.  We plan to issue a task order to complete plans and specifications for this facility and the new Maintenance Building in the near future.

East Bank Roadways/Site Plan P&S – Efforts have been initiated to issue a modification to ACE to prepare P&S for the parking lots, roadways, and site grading for the east bank area of the lock.  This will require close coordination with the two buildings being designed by Harza above.  A combined kick-off meeting on these two efforts is being planned for the late April/early May timeframe.

Transmission Towers

Construction progress – See Construction Activities in Section B.

Retaining wall for three downstream, east bank 69 kV towers –  The 100% P&S by Harza were submitted late March and are under review.  Efforts are being pursued to have TVA’s Heavy Equipment Division perform this wall’s construction.  A tentative start date for this construction is 2 July 2001.

Disposal/Contractor Laydown Areas

Vulcan Materials Disposal Site – The 100% submittal for this design was received in March.  Review is currently underway and a final submittal is expected in May.  An in-house Value Engineering Study of this design commenced in January.  Results of this study were distributed to Nashville District team members with the 100% submittal and are under consideration.

Construction Laydown and Scheduling Task Order – The final report for this effort was received at the end of March.  Review is underway to make sure all previous comments have been incorporated.

Cofferdam Design

Downstream cofferdam –  The 95% Phase 1 DDR submittal by B/G was received in March. The 95% Phase 1 DDR comment resolution meeting will be held on April 19.  A trip to WES with navigation industry representatives to view the navigation model with the downstream cofferdam in place was held on 7 March.  Industry representatives provided several ideas for both improving the design and limiting existing lock closure.

Upstream cofferdam – Black & Veatch submitted 100% Plans & Specifications for this feature in March.  Comments requiring minor changes not incorporated from the 95% submittal have been sent and are being resolved now.  Some in-house changes to this package will be required after final submittal to reflect the contracting scenario presented in Section B above.

East Bank Temporary Cut-off Analysis –  Comments on the 90% submittal for this analysis were sent to B&V and are being incorporated.  The 100% report is expected in April.

Sheetpile Acquisition – Delivery and storage of piling for the Upstream Cofferdam is complete.  The Physical Plant crew is currently unloading piling for the Downstream Cofferdam.  We hope to have all unloading completed by 13 April.

Materials DM

A very productive meeting with WES was held in Vicksburg on 7 March to discuss production of summaries and reports for all of their testing in support of development of this DM.  (Minutes available) We are still on schedule to issue a essentially complete report at the beginning of FY 02.  Reports on some testing continuing past this date will be issued as an addendum to the report.

Relocations

·        RR/Hwy Design

·        TN River Bridges Substructure P&S – A review meeting for the 90% complete plans and specifications was held at the Barkley Resource office on 5 April.  Design is still on track for a late spring advertisement.  Major issues discussed and decisions made at the meeting include:

·        A large part of the meeting concentrated on refining the designs for cavity remediation during drilled shaft construction and determining their measurement and pay items.

·        New underwater topographic surveys did not result in significant changes from the previous survey; therefore, there will not be topographic changes to the existing Contract Plans.

·        All major comments on the 90% P&S submittal were discussed and resolved.

·        An interim submission of all Technical Specifications and the Contract Drawings that received significant revisions from the 90% version will be distributed for review on 19 April.  A conference call to discuss this review is scheduled for 27 April.  A final submission to the Corps is still scheduled for 11 May.

Miscellaneous

KY Lock Telephone Directory – A list of all organizations and key personnel involved in the design of this project that contains their address, phone numbers and email addresses is available upon request to Don Getty, (615) 736-2346 [don.b.getty@lrn02.usace.army.mil].

Future Project Meetings

·        5 April – 90% Bridge Substructure P&S Review Meeting at site

·        April 19 – 95% Phase 1 DS Cofferdam in S.F.

·        End of April or Early May – Kick Off for Ops Bldg P&S and East Bank Roadways P&S

·        May 17 – TVA Review of Existing Lock Wall Anchoring and Instrumentation

·        June 4 – TVA Board of Consultants

·        Late June – Pre-bid site walk through for Bridge Substructure Contract

End of Report