WEBVTT

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This is Anthony Perkins . I'm the

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operations project manager for the

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Black Warrior Tongue , Bigby and

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Alabama River Project . Uh Today ,

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we're uh here looking at the uh

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Demopolis Locking Dam . It's uh had

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been down for exactly four months . Uh

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The concrete breach uh and concrete

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failure occurred . January 16th had the

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closure here blocking both the Black

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Warrior waterway and the 10 ton

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waterways . Well , the event was

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actually the concrete failure . Uh

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large pieces falling out of the minors

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of concrete . The largest piece was 400

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tons . So we ended up uh subbing out

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the mckinney company out of New Orleans ,

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a salvage company that had a 700 ton

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crane , one of the largest cranes in

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this region uh brought it up and picked

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out the larger pieces . Our engineering

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came up with systems to dial uh

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rods into the existing minor cell , the

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floor and the sides of the lock to hold

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it and secure it better . We put a lot

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of rebar in this concrete . We had

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three dive crews that rotated out 24

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7 . Initial thoughts were that it could

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go into the , you know , June . Uh But

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as we were making the last couple of

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lifts of concrete . It did end up

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curing a little faster uh and reaching

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the full strength uh faster than the

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previous lift . And also we were

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concerned with the water differ ,

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temperature , differ from our river

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water to the temperature of the

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concrete . And we actually reached that

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point earlier than expected . So we

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were able to open the lock and finish

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all the work last week . You know , you

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look across the Corps of Engineers .

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This is one of the largest concrete

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failures that the cor had . So

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initially and seeing the amount of

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concrete that fell out , uh and what we

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had to do what was in front of us . It ,

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you know , it looked dawning at times

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to , to what we had to do to get it

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back open and you and it was at the

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worst time of the year in the high

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river levels and that to not be able to

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fully dewater . The lock was a concern

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initially . Uh But , you know , we had

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decided to , to get this waterway back

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open and the impact it was having on

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the users , we had to pour the concrete

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underwater and not worry about the

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water levels right off the bat . We

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involved our nationally , our core

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groups are inland design centers ,

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engineering . We actually involved

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other districts . Uh you know , the

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center of expertise . Uh We had uh

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within the core , we had some uh folks

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and engineers that did have experience

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with underwater force . So it was a big

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learning experience for not only us out

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in the field and repairing , but also

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our engineers in our district uh to ,

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to get through this and to uh design it

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and then see it in action , see it

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poured , react to it and the testing

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that was involved , it was a big

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learning , you know , experience for

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all of us and something that will carry

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forward and knowing what to look for

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and knowing how to make these repairs

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in the future if we ever need to .