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IHNC Seabrook Sector Gate Complex

SALIENT FEATURES

  •  Coastal Hurricane and Storm Damage Reduction

  •  Comprehensive Planning

  •  Preliminary Studies / Feasibility Report

  •  Value Engineering

  •  Engineering Design through Plans/Specs

  •  Design Analysis and DDR Preparation

  •  Technical & BCOES Review

  •  Shallow Draft Navigation

  •  Environmental Ecosystem Habitat Restoration

  •  Construction Cost: $170M+

CLIENT

US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), New Orleans District

LOCATION:

New Orleans, Louisiana

BACKGROUND

In August 2005, Hurricane Katrina sent surges of water into the New Orleans Inner Harbor Navigation Canal (IHNC). The water overflowed canal walls and levees, causing major damage. Following the catastrophic event, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) undertook the Seabrook Sector Gate project. The Seabrook Complex is a hydraulic floodgate complex located at the junction of IHNC and Lake Pontchartrain near downtown New Orleans, LA. Goals of the project were to provide an effective line of defense against hurricane surge and wind-generated waves for the levees and floodwalls within the IHNC and minimize the overall cost of rebuilding, improving, and maintaining the existing flood protection system.

PROJECT FEATURE

The Seabrook Complex features a 95-ft steel sector gate at the center flanked by two 50-ft steel vertical lift gates (VLG) and tie-in T-wall structures that connect to the newly built hurricane protection on the west and east bank of IHNC. This project utilized Early Contractor Involvement (ECI) mechanism.


As part of BioEngineering-Arcadis JV, Dr. Anwar Zahid of infraTECH (working for Arcadis) served as the overall Designer of Record (DOR) for the entire project and Dr. Ifti Ahmad of infraTECH (working for BioEngineering) led the design effort of the vertical lift gate. The Seabrook Gate Complex won the 2012 ENR best projects award for Texas and Louisiana, and also won the ACEC Honor Award in 2013. As the overall DOR for this project, Dr. Zahid was interviewed by Engineering News Record (ENR).

"Anwar, You have been very active, knowledgeable, and hardworking to bring contractor, USACE and your design team in the same page and help moving the project smoothly.. While being responsible for providing an excellent product, you and your team have played an excellent role in the construction phase to help USACE save Federal dollars and keeping this mega and very significant IHNC-Seabrook Sector Gate Complex project under budget. My life has been a little easier knowing the quality of people working on the Seabrook project."

Thomas Hassenboehler, PE, 

Technical Lead, USACE New Orleans District

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