15 May 2020

Metal Shop makings...

Navigation is one of our oldest missions. We’re mandated by Congress to keep the Mississippi River open for commercial navigation by maintaining a 9-foot-deep and 300-foot-wide channel, and we do that by dredging on an annual basis. So, as one might imagine, our dustpan dredge, the Hurley, gets used quite a bit keeping the Mississippi open, so our talented team at Ensley Engineer Yard have their work cut out for them keeping her running year after year. This brings us to the project Machinist Brandon Almeida is working on – it’s something the Dredge Hurley uses called “propeller rope guards.” He’s also making the mount needed to make the rope guards on – talk about complex work.

10 May 2020

Memphis Builders: Behind the Mask III

This next builder of the care facility really stood out to me – and it wasn’t the side by side braids either. It was her presence. Have you ever just met someone who gives off a certain type of aura or energy that makes you feel a little more calm or at ease? This person had it. Here from St. Joseph, Missouri, her name is Jonna Henry, and she works for a subcontractor in Safety. I guess her occupation explains that aura I felt earlier.

1 May 2020

Memphis Builders: Behind the Mask II

Building this FEMA-assigned Alternate Care Facility requires a great variety of skill sets; that’s quite obvious to most people. What isn’t so obvious is just how many of one skill set a person can find in a matter of two days and two floors worth of construction workers. After meeting Anthony Bell on Tuesday this week, the Low Voltage Technician from Memphis, I thought that was a pretty unique job title to be honest. I’d actually never heard of it before. Let me introduce you to two more low voltage technicians, Hunter Dunkin, who I found working on the second floor, and Nick Marcy, who I saw on a ladder gathering cable on the fourth floor.

29 Apr 2020

Memphis Builders: Behind the mask

Walking around the Alternate Care Facility construction site, people are usually focused on what workers are doing, not so much the people themselves. And if you’re like me, you’re also very focused on the ground as you don’t want to trip and fall over something as simple as a little cord. But, it’s important to get to know the people doing the work. They are the ones making this facility a reality after all. They are also the people sacrificing time with their families, working 12 hours a day and seven days a week.

28 Apr 2020

Thank you: Building a facility of hope

The team of people building a facility made to care for people who contract the COVID-19 virus are working around the clock to make sure that if our local hospitals can't handle the caseload at that time, no one gets turned away. We want to thank all of our workers out there making this alternate care center ha reality. No matter what part of the team a worker is on, each is important and contributes an invaluable knowledge and skill to this facility of hope and care.

20 Apr 2020

Power of the pump, no telework

While many people are at home working in front of a computer, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have people out in the field operating equipment and facilities that, at this point in time, cannot be controlled from a workstation at home. The Graham Burke Pumping Plant is one of those “pieces” of equipment that requires people to be on-site for safe operation. Pumping Plant Operator Leaderman William “Billy” Ray and Pumping Plant Operator John “Brady” Foran are two of those valuable employees who are called upon to run one of the Corps’ most valuable facilities.

19 Apr 2020

Corps, multiple teams ready to construct Memphis ACF

As the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Memphis District continues to work in support of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) - and in coordination with other federal, state, local, tribal partners, and our prime contractor AECOM – to build Memphis' Alternate Care Facility and to synchronize the interagency response to the COVID-19 Pandemic, multiple teams came together yesterday to meet and prepare for a very busy month ahead.

16 Apr 2020

Big Island, Below Senath seepage remediation projects awarded

The Memphis District U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recently awarded Task Orders to construct two seepage remediation projects in Arkansas and in Missouri.

15 Apr 2020

Social distancing, the MVM mission

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention has several recommendations in place to try and stop the spread of this monstrous virus, to include such measures as wearing a face mask when out in public and practicing what has become mandated in many states: social distancing. While social distancing and other precautions are in place for the right reasons, they can unfortunately have a challenging impact on business operations. Especially difficult is when your employees cannot do their job behind a computer. So what do they do?

13 Apr 2020

$10M contract awarded for ACM casting

The Memphis District U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recently awarded a $10 million contract for articulated concrete mattress (ACM) casting at Richardson Landing Casting Field to Mississippi Limestone Corporation from Friars Point, Mississippi.

15 Jan 2020

Earning our customers’ trust

When someone does a good job on something, like cutting your hair for example, you become their loyal customer because they’ve earned your trust. The Army Corps of Engineers doesn’t cut hair, but they can and do repair boats, among many other things, and the Memphis District’s Ensley Engineer Yard does it so well that these skilled tradesmen are becoming the team of choice for more and more when it comes to marine maintenance projects and repair work.

6 Jan 2020

Memphis District: 2019 dredged up with a bang

The Memphis District U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has several missions associated with the Mississippi River. One of the most important is to keep the river channel at a depth that allows the river barge industry to dependably transport goods up and down the river. To deliver on this charge, the Memphis District awarded a contract/task order in the amount of $7,987,200 to the Inland Dredging Company in April of 2019. On Dec. 23, 2019, Inland Dredging Co. completed all work with a total of 1,289,598 cubic yards of sediment dredged from all 10 Memphis District Harbors.