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Army Corps Enlarges Levee in Mississippi CEG CORRESPONDENT
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The project involves 4.7 mi. (7.5 km) of levee between Goose Lake Road and Fitler. The levee will be raised 5 ft. (1.5 m). !
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Earthwork for the project involves approximately 1.2 million cu. yds. (917,466 cu m) of semi-compacted and compacted embankment material. ! ! "
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Table of Contents ........4 Attachment Section ...... ............................19-23 Truck & Trailer......24-26 Recycling Section 31-37 Auction Section....47-55 Business Calendar…..48 Advertisers Index ......54
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is currently directing a project to enlarge a levee in Issaquena County, Mississippi. The contract was awarded to Kenneth R. Thompson Builders Inc., Greenwood, Miss., with funding coming from the corps’ Mississippi River and Tributaries Project. The full contract amount is approximately $10 million. The project began in November 2009, and is expected to take a total of 36 months to complete. The project involves 4.7 mi. (7.5 km) of levee between Goose Lake Road and Fitler. The levee will be raised 5 ft. (1.5 m) The job is currently running on schedule. One of the challenges faced is that Mississippi Highway 465 runs atop the levee, and local traffic must be maintained during construction. In addition, crews face normal construction challenges of moving the levee making mate-
Construction Spending Rises in November Construction spending increased by 0.4 percent in November, the third straight rise in the total, the Associated General Contractors of America noted Jan. 3 in an analysis of new Census Bureau data. Private residential and public construction each gained 0.7 percent compared with October’s totals, while private nonresidential construction edged down 0.1 percent. “It is heartening to see three increases in a row for the total,” said Ken Simonson, the association’s chief economist. “But most categories showed more of a seesaw pattern over the past three months, indicating that construction spending remains fragile at best.” Simonson noted that the strongest category appears to be power construction, which has climbed for four consecutive months from a sea-
sonally adjusted annual rate of $75.7 billion in July to $85.7 billion in November. He added that power construction will be helped in 2011 by extension of tax credits for building wind and other renewable power facilities. Residential improvements appear to have rebounded for the past three months also, up $15 billion since August. Simonson cautioned, however, that the Census Bureau often makes large revisions — down or up — to this estimate. Public construction reached a 16-month high of $318.5 billion, but is likely to decrease in 2011, Simonson observed. Major federal funding for military base realignment, Gulf Coast hurricane work and stimulus projects is expected to taper off in the second half of the year. Meanwhile, the new Congress and many gover-
nors have signaled that they intend to hold down spending on infrastructure among other categories, the economist noted. Association officials urged leaders of the 112th Congress to maintain a commitment to transportation and water infrastructure. Stephen E. Sandherr, the association’s chief executive officer, noted that proposed rule changes being considered by the incoming Congress jeopardize highway, bridge and transit investments. “Deferring needed improvements to our aging transportation network will undermine business activity today while saddling future taxpayers with ever-larger maintenance and repair costs,” Sandherr said.