Horner & Shifrin to oversee Corps of Engineers levee repairs

O’Fallon, Ill. — Horner & Shifrin (H&S) was selected by the JL Brown Contracting Service and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to provide construction management services for six levee repair projects in the bi-state area caused by heavy flooding damage last summer. Work on these projects, which total over $1.3 million, began in late May.

Under the direction of Quality Control Managers Kelly Hayes and Mark Games, H&S will act as a liaison between the Corps and the project contractor, subcontractors, stakeholders and testing facilities. The company will also be responsible for managing and coordinating quality control on all projects, and for the review, approval and submission of shop drawings to USACE. Both Hayes and Games have experience with Corps of Engineers work.

The levees at Kaskaskia Island in Randolph County, Ill.; Elm Point in St. Charles County, Mo.; and Wood River in Madison County, Ill., suffered major landslides. These will be repaired through excavating to expose the failure plane, lime treating the soil and placing and compacting the levee back to its original grade. At Kaskaskia and other sites, erosion due to wave wash on the riverside will be repaired.

Two of the levees have sustained breaches in their walls: the Winfield Levee in Lincoln County, Mo., and the Columbia Bottoms Levee in St. Charles County, Mo. The Winfield breach, which flooded thousands of acres of farmland causing great economic loss, will be filled with sand that had blown out of the levee. The damage to Columbia Bottoms was less severe, and will be repaired by placing and compacting clay levee material back to the original grade.

A collapsed discharge pipe will be investigated and repaired at the Columbia Pump Station in Monroe County, Ill., along with minor grading and establishment of turf at the site.

All six projects are expected to be completed by September 2014.