The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Galveston District, awarded a contract in the amount of $178,798.11 to Quaternary Resource Investigations LLC for routine soil sampling and laboratory testing at the Alexander Island Dredge Material Placement Area adjacent to the Houston Ship Channel.

The contractor will provide labor and equipment to obtain subsurface soil samples and perform laboratory testing on selected samples.

“This geotechnical services contract allows us to analyze the soils’ physical characteristics and engineering properties, data that will be used by engineers to design improvements to the existing placement area,” said Andrew Weber, a geotechnical engineer in the USACE Galveston District’s Geotechnical and Structural Engineering Section. “Improvements typically involve increasing the height of the perimeter containment dike to create additional capacity for the placement area to hold dredged material from future dredging of the Houston Ship Channel.”

According to Weber, this work directly supports the district’s mission of maintaining navigable waterways and benefits the nation by providing consistent and uninterrupted access for marine commerce to the Port of Houston.

Work is scheduled to begin November 2013 with an estimated completion date of March 2013.

The USACE Galveston District was established in 1880 as the first engineer district in Texas to oversee river and harbor improvements. The district is directly responsible for maintaining more than 1,000 miles of channel, including 270 miles of deep draft and 750 miles of shallow draft as well as the Colorado River Locks and Brazos River Floodgates.

USACE, November 01, 2013