Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works John Paul Woodley speaks during the dedication ceremony Friday at Waterways Experiment Station for the Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory Building.(Meredith Spencer The Vicksburg Post)

[6/19/04]Ceremonies marking the dedication of one major U.S. Army Corps of Engineers asset and the beginning of construction of another were held here Friday.

A new building at the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center was dedicated and a keel-laying ceremony was held at the LeTourneau Inc. plant for a new dredge to be used by a Corps district on the Upper Mississippi River.

The building that was dedicated at ERDC is to house employees of the successor to the oldest laboratory on the site. Offices for 148 employees of the Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory are in the multi-story building.

Friday was also the 75th anniversary of the June 18, 1929, order that led to the establishment of Waterways Experiment Station. That order, which followed the river’s devastating 1927 flood, was to establish a facility near the Mississippi River for research into flood-control.

The research site, which covers 673 acres, is now headquarters to the Corps’ Engineer Research and Development Center and is also home to three other of its six labs. About 1,200 of the ERDC’s 2,000 employees are based there.

“It is great that on the 75th anniversary of the Waterways Experiment Station, we dedicated a state-of-the-art facility in the Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory, which was the original research lab at the station,” said the ERDC director, Dr. James Houston.

Friday’s ceremony was to dedicate a 56,000-square-foot addition to the headquarters building. Construction for the addition began in October 2003 and cost about $6.9 million. It also includes an auditorium with seating for 275 people and a large library.

The U.S. Army’s assistant secretary for civil works, John Paul Woodley Jr., was the guest speaker for the outdoor ceremony.

The CHL resulted from a 1996 merger of the then-separate Coastal Engineering Research Center and the Hydraulics Laboratory. The merger consolidated laboratory functions, but employees’ offices had remained in separate locations.

The building was built using a design-build procurement strategy designed to result in greater efficiency in contracting and construction.

“While the design-build strategy is frequently used in the commercial industry and for military construction, the new CHL addition was the largest design-build project in the Corps of Engineers’ civil-works program,” said a press release announcing the dedication.

“The station has enjoyed 75 years of excellence,” Houston said. “Our unique research facilities, like this new building, are important facets of our capabilities. But our true source of excellence is our people: our engineers, scientists, technicians and other staff are some of the best at what they do.”

Had the ceremonial laying of the keel for the new dredge been held a day earlier, the audience could have seen a demonstration without leaving their seats.

Water from the Mississippi River had crept up to the presentation area, but stages are falling and workers were able to dry out the land in time for Friday’s ceremony.

The keel was for a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers vessel and more than 50 people attended the ceremony at the LeTourneau plant south of Vicksburg, including representatives from Panama.

“This dredge is utilizing the latest in technology,” said Kevin Williams, president of Oilfield-Electric-Marine Inc.

The project is a venture between OEM, Marine Design Center and LeTourneau, much better known for the dozens of offshore oil exploration rigs it has built at its riverside plant.

The dredge will be the first of its kind. It will use LeTourneau’s renowned rack-and-pinion drive that will allow the dredge to move smoother across a river bed, work more efficiently and cause less environmental damage. The cutter suction dredge will not use any hydraulics and run all electrically.

“If anybody can do the rack-and-pinion drive, it’s LeTourneau,” said Vinton Bossert, chief of the machinery section of the Marine Design Center.

The construction of “Dredge Goetz” will occur at LeTourneau, but OEM will ship electrical equipment from Houston. It will be the first dredge LeTourneau has built since the 1980s.

The dredge, a machine used to clean and clear river bottoms, will be sent to the Army engineers’ St. Paul District upon its completion this fall. The dredge will also have a tow and quarters barge, which are out for bids.

The dredge’s namesake, William Goetz, was always environmentally conscience, Col. Richard Jenkins said.

“He was one of the first people to understand how to do his work and be an environmental steward,” he said.

The new dredge will replace the “Dredge Thompson,” which was built in 1937.

While some said they would miss the old dredge, others said they were eager for an upgrade.

Nancy Peck said, “It sure would be nice to have a facility that isn’t cramped, old and outdated.”

“It is time we provide them with state-of-the-art equipment,” Jenkins said. “We have very exact requirements to maintain the channel of the Mississippi and at the same time sustain the environmental gifts of that region. This dredge will allow them to do that.”