WES Lock Model
LRN sent the final upstream topography to WES in early July for incorporation into the Lock Model. Testing of this new topography and the upstream floating guardwall are the last planned tests for this model. The tests are anticipated for this fall.

Lock Design
In-house efforts continue to focus on the support of WES's Lock and Navigation Model work, new lock stability, miter gate design, culvert valve design, preliminary electrical/mechanical design, east bank permanent embankment, and the development and managing of task orders.

Electrical/Mechanical Design. A new task order to take the electrical/mechanical designs to a DM level has been awarded to Harza. A 10% progress meeting was held at the site on 20 July with maintenance personnel in attendance. A 20% report has been received and is currently under review. A 20% conference call is scheduled for 18 August. As part of the corrosion mitigation design efforts, TVA will be initiating a program to collect and analyze lake water samples.

Site Development - John Manor of LRN has completed conceptual designs and drawings of the new lock's site development (available upon request). A task order is being developed with Gresham Smith and Partners to take this conceptual design to a DM level design. A scope has been finalized and estimates have been prepared. Negotiations are scheduled for 12 August. Delays in developing this task order are causing the postponement of a planned meeting at the KY Fish and Wildlife Department's visitor center in Frankfort, KY for the purpose of exploring partnering possibilities for KY Lock's possible visitor center. Avis Kennedy of LRNCO-T is continuing in her efforts to obtain guidance from higher Corps authority on whether and how the visitor center can be included as part of the project.

Lower Guidewall - Harza submitted their 70% design report the week of 2 August and it is currently under review. A 70% review meeting is tentatively scheduled for the week of 23 August in Chicago.

Upper Approach Walls - A task order to advance the upstream guardwall to DM level has been scoped and negotiations are planned with INCA Engineers. This task order should be awarded this month.  Floating Caisson- A 70% submittal on this DM level effort was made in July and review comments were returned to INCA on 23 July. This new caisson will provide for 1.5' more damming height than the existing caisson (for a total height of 29.5'). The new caisson will also be able to be set in 14' of water, 1' less than the existing caisson. The dewatering pumps and required piping will be permanently attached to the caisson, resulting in a faster and more efficient chamber dewatering.

Miter Gate Design - LRL has completed the initial construction of finite element model for the gates and analyses with it are ongoing. Design efforts are proceeding on track for a 75% submission by the end of August. Efforts are still underway to issue a task order to INCA to provide design checks.

As-built Drawings - A task order was issued to AIMSI Engineers to perform this work. Data gathering efforts are underway with completed site visits to KY Lock, TVA offices, and the Old Hickory Electrical Service Section.

EB Permanent Embankment - The DM level design of this feature is currently about 70% complete and will be finalized later this summer.

Stoplogs - Efforts to have the Mobile District develop a design package for their existing stoplog design have been cancelled due to the inability of LRN's existing derrick boats to accommodate the stoplogs' weight. LRN now plans to design shorter and lower weight stoplogs in-house.
Project Utilities - Members of the LRN design team have initiated efforts to identify design responsibilities for all of the known utility relocations and modifications associated with this project. A draft memo of these responsibilities is currently under review.

EP-D New IDT's - Contracts have now been awarded to three of the four new lock A/E's. INCA and a joint venture of Bergmann Associates and Ben C. Gerwick, Inc. are the latest awards. The last A/E contract is expected to be awarded any day now.

Disposal/Contractor Laydown Areas 
Vulcan Materials Disposal Site - Activities necessary to acquire the real estate rights for this 46-acre site located about 3/4 mile from the proposed lock on Hwy 453 have been initiated. These include: * A task order has been scoped and will be awarded soon to Bergmann Associates/Ben C. Gerwick (BA/BCG) to develop necessary designs for this disposal site. This includes access roads, storm water and erosion control measures, volumetric determinations, staging arrangements, assessment of impacted utilities, and final site characteristics.

* A coordination meeting with Vulcan officials, TVA real estate personnel, and design representatives of BA/BCG was held at the site on 4 August (minutes are available). Planned design features and the real estate acquisition process were discussed. A significant remaining issue is the determination of whether the site will be acquired in fee or if a long term easement will be obtained. Discussions between TVA and the Corps are planned over the next few weeks in an attempt to make this decision. 
* A site and boundary survey was initiated by Amercan Engineers the week if 9 August.

* TVA will be responsible for the appraisal and acquisition process. The appraisal will not begin until the site survey is complete. If a long term easement is chosen, then the appraisal will commence after preliminary designs by BA/BCG are complete. If sufficient funding is received, it is expected that this acquisition process will occur next fiscal year.

Cofferdam DM
Downstream cofferdam - A 30% review meeting was held on 15 July in Nashville (minutes available). A decision was made to proceed with the design of the alternative expected to have the least impact on the operation of the existing lock. However, it was recognized that significant technical hurdles remained for this alternative before the design team could accept its design. This alternative moves the cofferdam about 20' farther away from the navigation channel than the other alternatives by incorporating the cofferdam permanently into the new lock's gravity wall. 

Upstream cofferdam - Scoping efforts are nearing completion for a task order to one of the new lock A/E's on the structural design of this feature. It is hoped that this order can be issued in August. 

Independent Technical Review - Efforts are still underway by LRN's Structural Section and Geotechnical Branch to assemble this review team. It is hoped that it can be formed in the next month and begin participating by reviewing design decisions.

Value Engineering Study - The first value engineering (VE) study on this project will concentrate on the downstream cofferdam. Three team meetings and a site visit have been held to date. The last meeting on 4 August involved representatives of BA/BCG who will be serving on the team. A task order is being developed for BA/BCG to provide the technical designs for at least two alternative concepts to those presented in Harza's 30% D/S Cofferdam report. BA/BCG will be examining both a float-in wall/cofferdam section and a full-width, braced cofferdam that will have a precast interior wall panel.

Materials DM
Testing of the sand and rock samples delivered to the Waterways Experiment Station (WES) are ongoing and completion is expected in October. Future tests of cement and other materials are planned for next FY. 

Hwy/RR
Quarterly Design Meetings - The next quarterly design meeting is scheduled for 16-17 August at the Lake Barkley Resource Managers office (agendas available). The Hwy-only meeting is scheduled for the afternoon of 16 August. The joint Hwy/RR meeting is scheduled for the morning of 17 August and the RR-only meeting that afternoon.

Highway DM
DM Design - Activities performed during the month by American Consulting Engineers (ACE) include: 

• Navigation Span
• Develop two conceptual configurations for proposed truss and piers.
• Continued layout/design of 3-span plate girder alternate. Alternative counterbalance design eliminates spiral geometry from bridge.
• Completed study of drilled shaft deep water foundations - 6' vs. 8' diameter and plum vs. battered - for 304' spans. Design for 152' spans continues.
• Developed barge impact forces for Powerhouse Island pier. Pier to be designed to withstand impact without protection.
• 304' span design calls for 11' deep girders on 13'-1.5" spacing.
• Continued on generating computerized rendering of the site
• Completed preliminary design of east bank connector, west bank connector, and TVA towers access road.
• Completed preliminary US 62/641 and 282 interchange ramp details.
• Completed Hwy capacity analysis for relocated US 62.
• Completed preliminary maintenance of traffic study.

Powerhouse Island Access Ramp - ACE submitted a preliminary folio on this design and a meeting was held on 19 July at the site to discuss it with appropriate Corps, TVA, and ACE staff (minutes available). After discussing design criteria and TVA access needs, it was agreed to have ACE develop alternate alignments to the one developed to date. These alternate alignments may be presented at the 16 August meeting.

Pedestrian Corridor Analysis - After distribution of ACE's feasibility study that examined alternate alignments for this corridor, a meeting was held on 19 August at the site with all pertinent design team members (minutes available). A preferred alternative alignment was selected, the high, direct bridge over the locks. An unresolved issue was the alignment of the corridor on top of the dam. ACE has been tasked to examine three alternatives in this regard: two with the corridor on the upstream side of the dam and one with the corridor on the to-be-abandoned RR alignment on the downstream side. These alignments will be discussed at the quarterly meeting on 16 August.

Middle Wall Maintenance Bridge - ACE is examining several different span arrangements and centerline alignments for this bridge due to stability concerns of the lock monoliths, physical constraints, and due to concerns over the ability to place the chamber stoplog bulkhead. These alternatives will be discussed at the 16 August meeting. This is a critical issue considering the interrelationship of this bridge, the pedestrian/bike bridge, and the powerhouse access ramp.

Geotechnical design - A task order was awarded in June for Fuller, Mossbarger, Scott and May to prepare the geotechnical reports necessary for the Hwy DM. 

Coordination with the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet - A response to LRN's letter of 30 December 1998 from the KyTC that documents their position on betterment sharing has not yet been received. LRN is continuing the refinement of a first draft of a betterment sharing agreement with the KyTC. It will soon be forwarded to TVA for review and then to the KyTC. A fast track review and coordination process by all parties will be required to get this agreement signed by late summer. It is important that this letter from KyTC that documents their cost sharing computations be received as soon as possible to expedite the drafting of this agreement.

Railroad DM
Walker Cemetery Access Road - Hanson Engineers has submitted the 100% Plans and Specifications for this road. The construction contract documents are currently being prepared by LRN. It is expected that this construction contract will be awarded to an 8A contractor in September.


RR Design - In addition to the cemetery access road and WB utilities, Hanson Engineers have performed the following activities over the last month: 

* Continued preliminary design of the truss span
* Initiated study of the modification of the RR bridge over KY 282
* Continued the collection of information for MCACES cost estimates
* Continued the Section 303 (formerly 4(f)) Statement
* Continued preliminary foundation design for approach spans
* Submitted preliminary study of Vulcan haul road bridge alternative analysis
* Submitted preliminary concepts for EB Powerline Access Road


WB Utility Relocations - Hanson has submitted the design of the water and sewer lines at a 75% level. It is anticipated that this construction contract will be awarded in late summer. Required coordination and development of legal documents with the owners could impact this schedule. 

Geotechnical Design - Harza submitted their 30% geotechnical report for the analyses for the EB retaining walls and wye track alignment the week of 2 August. A task order will be issued to Harza the week of 9 August to complete geotechnical studies for P&S on the WB embankment.


TVA Transmission Towers Relocation
Eight Upstream Towers (four on each bank) - Design efforts by TVA engineers are proceeding, with foundation/footing designs scheduled for completion soon. An order has been placed to acquire the structural steel for all eight towers. Due to scheduling conflicts within TVA and concerns about the Economy Act, it is still not known what forces will be used to drive the piles necessary for the tower foundations on the powerhouse island. The Corps is now in the process of seeking approval by the Assistant Secretary of the Army (Civil Works) to allow TVA to use members of its contract partners in the construction of the towers. Due to the length of time this approval process usually requires, it is not expected that significant efforts can be executed this fiscal year for the towers on the powerhouse island. It is still planned to issue a construction contract for the concrete footings for four towers on the east bank, possibly early this fall. A scoping meeting to discuss the construction sequencing of the towers is scheduled for 23 August in Chatanooga.

Three Downstream Towers (69 kV) - A decision on relocating the three downstream towers is still pending based on a review of the engineering analysis performed by Harza Engineers in their DM level design of the downstream guidewall. The results of Harza's analysis were included in their 30% submittal of the D/S guidewall DM and has been refined in 70% submittal. A final decision on the fate of these three towers will be made after a review of this report by LRN and TVA. Preliminary indications are that the 3 towers will not have to be relocated.


Miscellaneous

Development of Drawing Library System - LRN plans to develop a library of all drawings that can be accessed by all members of the design team. When it is complete, a message will be sent to all design team members and will be posted on the Homepage.

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@usace.army.mil .

End of Report