| Army Trains for Way It Fights
|
Construction is underway for the new facilities that are part of the Maneuver Center of Excellence.
|
| By Sandra Hudson, US Army Corps of Engineers, Savannah District, Public Affairs Office Photos by Sandra Hudson
|
By combining its two ground elements, Infantry and Armor, the Army not only changes doctrine, but saves money, gains efficiencies, and creates training that is more in line with the way today's military fights. Click here to learn more about how the Savannah District, U. S. Army Corps of Engineers is changing the landscape of Ft. Benning, Georgia, using its existing property.
All previously aired video vignettes on Savannah District team members are available through the Video Archives link at the top of this page.
|
| Districts present 2009 Programs at annual SAME conference
|
| The Savannah District hosted the annual Society of American Military Engineers (SAME) Conference in Columbus, Georgia on November 13. During the conference, leadership from the Savannah, Charleston, Wilmington, Jacksonville, and Mobile Districts presented their business forecast for 2009 and the out years, in their 2009 Program Review briefings. A representative from Ft. Benning also provided an in-depth presentation on the installation.
|
| Construction Quality Management Course for Contractors Offered
|
| The US Army Corps of Engineers Savannah District will host a two-day “Construction Quality Management for Contractors" course, February 10-11, 2009. The course will begin at 8:00 a.m. each day in the Executive Conference Room, Juliette Gordon Low Federal Building, 100 W. Oglethorpe Avenue, Savannah. The instructor is Mr. Robert L. Cagle III, Deputy Chief of Construction Division, USACE Savannah District. The fee for the course is $125. Please make checks payable to "Finance & Accounting Officer (Savannah District)". Indicate on the check For Construction QM for Contractors Course. Mail checks to: US Army Corps of Engineers, Savannah District, 100 West Oglethorpe Avenue, ATTN: CD-TM, Savannah, GA 31402. The point of contact for registration is Mr. Felipe Vigo at (912) 652-5101, or email felipe.l.vigo@usace.army.mil
|
|
Georgia Water Resources Partnering Conference Slated for March 2009
|
|
The South Atlantic Division along with the Savannah District and the Mobile District will host the
2009 Georgia Partnering Conference March 9 – 11, 2009, at the Calloway Gardens, in Pine Mountain, Ga.
Designed to encourage partnerships between state and local resource agencies and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers,
the conference will cover topics such as the Georgia State Water Plan, flood risk management, recreation,
environmental stewardship, and water quality and monitoring.
For more information click here or call 251-690-3240, or 251-690-2608, or 912-652-5578.
|
|
African Hydropower Authorities Tour Savannah River Basin
|
|
|
Steve Wynn, power project manager, J. Strom Thurmond Project, discusses the aerated turbine with Forpu Njikam, Department of the Army civil engineering intern and Dr. Joerg Hartmann, dams initiative leader, World Wide Fund for Nature, Germany.
|
|
By Rashida Banks, US Army Corps of Engineers, Savannah District, Public Affairs Office
Photos by Erika Nortemann, The Nature Conservancy
|
A delegation of hydropower authorities from Africa’s Zambezi River Basin visited the Savannah District June 25 as part of a ten-day tour to share information about ecologically sustainable river basin management.
Funded by a partnership between the Corps and The Nature Conservancy, the visit provided a forum for water managers from Africa and the United States to share information and discuss lessons learned from the Sustainable Rivers Project (SRP) in order to help water managers address challenges faced in the Zambezi River Basin.
“Our goal is to create examples for the rest of the world,” said Andy Warner, senior advisor for water management, The Nature Conservancy. “We are not only looking to share our experiences and successes, but also our challenges and solutions.”
The SRP is a collaboration between the Corps of Engineers and The Nature Conservancy designed to define and implement environmental flows through adaptive reservoir management, while meeting a range of other human needs such as hydropower generation, flood risk management, and water supply. The SRP currently involves work on 36 Corps dams in eight basins across the U.S. - including the Savannah.
The primary focus of the visit was on the Savannah River where managers face sustainable development challenges similar to those in the Zambezi River Basin, such as hydropower development, management of flood risk, floodplains, fisheries, and water supply and water quality; maintenance and development of infrastructure; conjunctive dam operations; and conservation of ecosystem services, wetlands, and biological diversity.
During the meeting at the District, Isreal Phiri, manager, Office for promoting Private Power Investment, Zambia Ministry of Energy and Water Development, gave an overview of the Zambezi River Basin and discussed some of the water resources management challenges associated with the basin as well as current strategies and solutions.
In comparison to the Savannah River Basin, the Zambezi River Basin is much larger, covering 1500 miles across eight countries, making water management in the basin difficult due to various competing interests, said Phiri.
In addition to meetings in Washington DC and Georgia, the delegation also toured the New Savannah Bluff Lock and Dam, J. Strom Thurmond Dam, and multiple points of interest within the basin such as the river floodplain, harbor, estuary, barrier island, and the city of Atlanta.
“The value of partnerships has been shown here,” said Elenestina Mwelwa, senior manager in charge of the Environment and Social Affairs Unit, ZESCO. “This is a little step, but it is in the right direction,” said Mwelwa of the visit.
|
|
| Jason Ward, hydrologist, Savannah District explains to Romas Kamanga, Elenestina Mwelwa, and Christopher Nthala, of the Zambia Electricity Supply Corporation Ltd., and Dr. Lindsey Beevers, lecturer in hydraulic engineering and river basin development at UNESCO-INE Institute for Water Education, how the Savannah River compares to other coastal plain rivers in Georgia.
|
|
Law Enforcement Complex features enhanced 9-1-1 capabilities
|
Fort Gordon's new law enforcement complex boasts enhanced capabilities to support the Provost Marshall's Office.
|
|
Fort Gordon’s new law enforcement center opened Oct. 3 with an open house ceremony. The $4.5 million, 16,000 square-foot facility is located on Rice Road next to the fire department. Construction on the one-story centralized facility began on Oct. 20, 2006 and concluded in Sept. 2008. The center houses administrative, operational and support activities of the Provost Marshall. The open house format gave the center’s Soldiers and civilians an opportunity to tour the facility, along with emergency responders.
“The building is co-located with the existing Central Fire Station to facilitate Emergency Response and communications sharing,” said Phil Payne, Resident Engineer with the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Fort Gordon Resident Office. “The design and construction complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act, and will allow for a future expansion that permits relocation of the Military Police Battalion.” The new building replaces an existing, interim facility that was converted from a former dining facility.
There are four 9-1-1 stations in the building. Two will be used by Fort Gordon operators. The other two can be used in the event of failures in nearby counties. Dispatchers from Columbia or Richmond County could field calls at those desks. In addition to the increased capabilities of the new 9-1-1 center, the building has an interview room and a holding area for up to eight detainees at one time, traffic accident investigations section, and patrol force operations. There is also a personal property room for lost items.
The design-build contract was awarded to a Joint Venture partnership between Port Graham Development Corporation out of Anchorage, AK and Teng, LLC in Chicago, IL. The facility was designed in accordance with the Installation Design Guide for Fort Gordon and uses standard designs for Military Police/Police Stations to ensure the most efficient operational facilities and compliance with applicable regulations and statutes.
The new facility enhances the function and activities of the Fort Gordon Provost Marshall.
|
|
Building Hope for Iraqi Children
|
Ryan Hartwig, Savannah District Operations Division, recently returned from a 7-month tour of duty with the Gulf Region South. Ryan is standing next to an Iraqi civil engineer with the Basrah Children Hospital Office.
|
|
| By A. Al Bahrani. Public Affairs Specialist, Gulf Region South District
|
BASRAH, Iraq — "I feel blessed to be working on this important project," said Ryan Hartwig, construction representative with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Basrah Children’s Hospital Office. (Hartwig returned to his position with the Savannah District's Operations Division as Natural Resources Program Manager following a seven month-deployment to the Gulf Region South.)
“Each time we go, we see more progress. I can look at the place now and actually visualize patients using this facility,” he continued. “It’s just very satisfying being part of this effort that will no doubt save or change the lives of so many Iraqi children.
”
Several key partners are involved in the project including Project Hope (a non-government organization), the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), and the Iraqi Ministry of Health, explained Hartwig. The overall price tag for the project now stands at $163.8 million. This total encompasses more than U.S. funds. It includes the $22 million grant from Spain being administered by the UNDP, $30 million from Project HOPE for high end medical equipment and hospital staff training, and $9.8 million from the Iraqi Ministry of Health for consumables. The MoH is also providing permanent electrical power, a wastewater treatment plant, and all the staff to operate the facility.
The hospital is designed to reduce child mortality in half within five years of its opening in southern Iraq – “a goal that will affect over one million children,” Hartwig said. The hospital will primarily be a referral center with a special focus on pediatric cancer, providing state-of-the-art specialty services never before available in Iraq.
About 500 Iraqis are currently working on the Basrah Children’s Hospital project and the 160,000-sq.-ft., 94-bed main facility is expected to be completed by year’s end. Components of the project include a 160,000 sq. ft. two-story, 94-bed children’s hospital building, mechanical and electrical plants, a 38-bed dormitory, medical waste treatment system, oxygen generation plant, warehouse, back-up generators, roads/parking and landscaping.
“We’re truly doing good things over here and changing people’s lives,” Hartwig said. “What you don’t see on TV are the positive projects we’re completing and turning over to the Iraqi government - new water treatment facilities, road paving, sewer lines, primary healthcare centers, substations, and schools,” he added.
A native of Le Center, Minn., Hartwig had been working as a natural resources manager at USACE’s Savannah District prior to his deployment to Iraq. “I couldn’t have made a better decision. It has been a life-changing experience. I feel like I have grown leaps and bounds personally, professionally and even spiritually,” he added.
“I really enjoy the diverse team I work with in Basrah. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Neil Underwood has kept this project together through the thick and thin and deserves a lot of the credit for where it is today, along with our Iraqi engineers who are at the project site every day. I can’t say enough about my guys out there. They are very capable and competent and have all the local knowledge that really allows this project to continue moving ahead,” said Hartwig.
During their off-duty hours, Hartwig points out that one of the more interesting things to do at Basrah is the “Everest Challenge.” He explained that when one climbs the stairs to the 14-story high Basrah Air Control Tower 233 times, “you have reached the equivalent height of Mt. Everest. The run up and down the tower used to be a lot more fun before the temperature rose above 110 degrees everyday! It might not be quite as scenic as Nepal, and maybe a little warmer than Everest, but it is as exhausting and is a great workout for the lungs and legs,” he explained.
“It is a good way to get out of camp and do something constructive with my friends and colleagues.” About a half-dozen of us do five to seven flights a day. Randy Mendenhall is the real mountaineer as he does the tower 10 times per day, and has already completed the ‘Everest Challenge’ twice.” Hartwig himself finished his ‘Everest Challenge’ June 24 and the Basrah staff presented him a certificate of achievement that he proudly displays.
“I will never forget these moments at Camp Blackadder (located alongside the Basrah International Airport). The paradigm shift I have experienced in the seven months I have been here would have taken me seven years to realize back in the States.”
|
|
|
Castle Online
|
click here to read latest issue of the Castle
|
|
Tybee Beach set for castles in the sand
|
Renourishment, a simple process, will replenish the sand eroded from the coast since the last such project, in 2000.
|
| By Sandra Hudson, Savannah District, Public Affairs Office, US Army Corps of Engineers
|
For most people a walk on the beach in the moonlight sparks romance, but for residents of Tybee Island, Ga., years of rolling tides caused by the gravitational interaction between the earth and our sky’s ‘nightlight’ have left Tybee’s beach needing new life.
Rebirth gets underway in October when the Operations Division of the Savannah District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers drives an $11 million project placing over 1.2 million cubic yards of sand back on the beach. That would fill a football field 750 feet high.
‘Renourishment,’ a simple process, will replenish the sand eroded from the coast since the last such project, in 2000.
“The first step is to find a borrow site with high-quality, beach sand,” said Burt Moore, Chief of Savannah District’s Dredging Section. In this case, the borrow site lies 1.5 offshore. There, the contractor, Great Lakes Dredge and Dock of Oakbrook, Ill., will anchor a massive rig, pump sand through a creeping pipeline and plump up the eroded coastline.
Moore, a lifetime resident of Tybee Island, admits there will be some inconvenience once the 24-hour operations begin. “However, the safety of our workers and the public is paramount,” he said.
Sections of the beach will be closed to the public starting on the south end and creep northward to keep pace with the dredge. Shorelovers will still have access by way of sand arches spanning the pipes.
“I remember one of the best summers of my life was in 1975 when we had dredging operations at Tybee,” said Moore. “My friends and I would drive our bicycles over the sand ramps. Then a movie production company showed up to film the movie “Gator” here with Burt Reynolds. They were crashing trucks and blowing up stuff over the pipes. We would spend all day at the beach.”
“Beach renourishment has a two-pronged benefit,” said Tybee City Manager Diane Schleicher. “We’ll have better shore protection and it will help economically because we’ll have a better beach.”
According to Moore, contactors expect to complete the project in March 2009.
|
|
|
Savannah
Harbor Expansion Project
|
| The
Savannah Harbor Expansion Project was authorized in WRDA 1999.
Certain additional analyses and approvals were required in the
authorization and the Corps' Chief of Engineers Report |
|
|
|
|
Marines leave the big city
|
.gif)
Photo by Jennifer Small (left to right) Tom Troutman, Executive Vice President, New South Construction; Col. Lance Maffett, 4th Marine Aircraft Wing Plans Officer; Maj. Gen. Thomas Owen, Commander, Warner Robins Air Logistics Center; Ric Powers, Area Engineer, US Army Corps of Engineers; Col. Debra Bean, Vice Commander, 78th Air Base Wing.
|
| By Sandra Hudson, Savannah District, Public Affairs Office, US Army Corps of Engineers
|
As part of another Base Realignment and Closure move, Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron -773, a reserve unit, will relocate from Naval Air Station Atlanta to Robins Air Force Base in Warner Robbins, Ga.
The $20 million project for the ‘Red Dogs’ new home includes building a 42,000 square foot hangar and renovating existing facilities for operational use. According to US Army Corps of Engineers, Savannah District Project Manager, Steve Welch, “the scheduled completion date is set for the first quarter of 2010 and is contracted to New South Construction.”
“One difference in this structure from other hangars is the Department of the Navy’s requirement for a fire suppression system in the floor instead of the walls or ceiling,” said Project Engineer, Rick Kavanaugh.
Kavanaugh, who served in the Marine Corps as an electrician says he feels a special connection to this project. “They’re really good customers and have responded when asked to provide input. I want to make sure they get some excellent facilities. We guarantee it.” Kavanaugh’s son, John keeps the leatherneck tradition alive and begins his military service in October.
Like the Kavanaugh family, The ‘Red Dogs’ have a distinguished history with a lineage dating to 1968 and a ‘gunship’ mission. Changes in assigned aircraft brought drug-interdiction duties during the 1990s. Today, the unit fights the Global War on Terror with successful combat operations in both Afghanistan and Iraq.
|
|
