Various locations, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska

2019-2021

Working in joint venture Water Resources Solutions - Intuition & Logic JV under USACE Kansas City District Contract W912DQ19D1016, Water Resources Solutions completed This $546,000 task order completed in March 2020 for the US Army Corps of Engineers Kansas City District performed periodic inspections of four levee and internal drainage systems involving 31 miles of levee, 16,859 feet of channel, 51 drainage structures and seven closure structures, protecting nearly 19,000 acres of agricultural and urban area. The task order was completed ahead of schedule (120 days) and on budget.

The project plan included schedule, delivery milestones, communication protocol, progress measuring and reporting, risk management strategy, quality control plan, change management strategy, detailed inspection team composition, ITR team composition, and public safety and health plan.

Periodic Inspections are done to verify proper levee system operation and maintenance, evaluate adequacy and structural stability, review design criteria to identify changes in current design standards, identify features to monitor over time, and improve the ability to communicate the overall condition with the system’s local sponsor. Components of the periodic inspection included:

• Collecting field inspection, design and correspondence data

• Evaluating the collected data

• Producing and presenting an out-brief presentation and final report.

• The inspection project plan developed and administered by WRS included:

• Schedule and delivery milestones, including the complicated task of coordinating scheduling issues with levee sponsors..

• Protocol for communications, progress measuring and reporting The project manager set up weekly coordination calls with the client, yet remained flexible in rearranging the weekly call to meet the government’s schedule changes.

• Risk management strategy

• Quality control plan

• Change management strategy

• Detailed inspection team composition

• Independent technical review team composition

• Public safety and health plan

• System Documentation Collection included review of all levee system documentation from USACE and obtaining missing data from the project sponsor and documenting data gaps.

Design Criteria Review was performed to evaluate the system documented design criteria against current design criteria for Hydraulic, Geotechnical, Structural, Mechanical, Electrical and Survey Datums.

Field Inspections were performed to physically walk the alignment and inspect crest, riverside and landside toes of the levee system, internal drainage systems, closure structures, encroachments, vegetation and more. All of the field data was collected in GIS using the Levee Inspection System created for the Corps national levee database. This database is the backbone of the Corps levee data systems.

Pre-inspection packets and Draft and Final PI Reports presenting system features and the results of each system inspection were prepared and adhered to the specific outline, content and general section/paragraph numbering requirements provided by the USACE.

Independent Technical Review was performed by a qualified team member not involved in the day-to-day production of the PI report for the purpose of confirming the proper application of clearly established criteria, regulations, laws, codes, principles and professional practices. The contractor was quick to alert the government of conflicting government review comments.

PI Out-briefs were conducted for the USACE Levee Safety Officer using presentations formatted to specific USACE requirements to inform the Levee Safety Officer of the PI findings, conclusions and recommendations.

Final reporting included debriefing of the Levee Inspection System (LIS) tablet-based remote inspection in-field inspection data-collection software system to identify areas for efficiency improvement. WRS was the first USACE contract with a contractor using the new Levee Inspection System application. WRS not only provided feedback to the district and the USACE ap development team on the pros and cons of the new system, which was above and beyond the contract requirements. WRS provided a list of suggested ways to improve the usability of the app.