Engineer Research And Development Center News

The Seamen’s Church Institute’s Center for Maritime Education (CME) has established a new partnership with the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) in Vicksburg, MS, with the goal of improving maritime training, advancing ship simulation technology, and enhancing safety across the nation’s waterways. The collaboration, formalized through a recent Memorandum of Agreement by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, is the result of ongoing conversations with mariners…

2024 marks another year for development of a biennial WRDA bill—Water Resources Development Act, critical legislation for the Nation’s waterways, ports and harbors. WRDA encompasses a range of issues, from environmental regs to energy use to agriculture and, of course, a focus on projects critical for economic growth.Because these are dynamic and timely issues, Congress and the maritime sector like to keep WRDA on a two-year reauthorization timeline. Indeed, the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee, December and January, held three WRDA information hearings.

“Not only does the top of the river move, but the bottom of the river also moves.” - James Bodron, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mississippi Valley Division, Regional Business Director.Dredging was the Herculean act that allowed much of the U.S. economy to keep chugging along as usual, at least for Midwest and Central states, as drought conditions threatened to shut down river traffic on the Mississippi River and its tributaries, during fall and winter 2022 and early 2023.The full scope of these U.S.

The integrity of the marine transportation system as a key plank in a country's economic prosperity is in heightened focus today, with logistics snarls contributing to fast rising inflation. Maintaining the integrity of the vast U.S. inland waterway system - with more than 12,000 miles of inland and intracoastal waterways including 218 lock chambers at 176 sites - is the focus of the Maritime Risk Symposium 2022, a 2.5-day conference scheduled for November 15-17, hostd by Argonne National Laboraty's TCS Conference Center.On Wednesday, November 16, 2022, James P.

Researchers from the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) Environmental Laboratory and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Great Lakes Districts — Buffalo, Detroit and Chicago — recently released a technical report providing guidance for evaluating the environmental suitability of dredged material in the Great Lakes region.The “Environmental Evaluation and Management of Dredged Material for Beneficial Use: A Regional Beneficial Use Testing Manual for…

Inland waterways, sometimes called ‘nature’s superhighways’ provide a strategic advantage related to security, economics, and trade for any nation whose geography, topography, and climate enable this natural infrastructure. Economic benefits are realized in small rural areas through large urban communities that utilize the system for efficient transportation and improved markets. However, deliberate operational, resource, and policy efforts, along with broad stakeholder integration, are required to maintain and operate such a system.

The Gulf Intracoastal Canal Association’s retiring executive director reflects on key progress made and vital work remaining.As my tenure as President, Gulf Intracoastal Canal Association (GICA) ends after 11 years, it is gratifying look at the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway (GIWW) and reflect on its compelling relevance to our nation. Often referred to as the “Silent Giant,” as I wrote in this publication in 2014, the Giant indeed awoke and emerged as a vital waterway which delivers…

Boston-based Sea Machines Robotics, a developer of autonomous command and control systems for surface vessels, said it has been awarded a multi-year Other Transaction (OT) agreement by the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD)’s Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) to initiate a prototype that will enable commercial ocean-service barges as autonomous Forward Arming and Refueling Point (FARP) units for an Amphibious Maritime Projection Platform (AMPP).Under this OT agreement, Sea Machines will engineer…

The U.S. How did an urgent requirement to build a road to Alaska end up helping to design submarines and to recover oil spills in the Arctic ice? The Army Corps of Engineers was faced with a monumental challenge of building a highway to connect the “lower 48” to Alaska during World War II to keep America’s northernmost territory secure from invasion. The road crossed hundreds of miles of wilderness, and much of the roadbed sat up permafrost, presenting challenges to America’s roadbuilders.

Specialty certifications programs are growing in most professions as the knowledge needed to practice continues to rapidly increase. Specialty certification supports the explosion of continuing professional development. The American Society of Civil Engineers’ (ASCE) Academy of Coastal Ocean Port & Navigation Engineers (ACOPNE) held its 6th Diplomate Induction Ceremony to honor 21 of its members for their higher education achievement during its annual meeting Monday, August 22, 2011, in San Diego, Calif.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), New England District, and the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC) have partnered to perform an extensive study of the shoreline in southern Rhode Island. This study, known as the Rhode Island Regional Sediment Management (RSM) Plan, is a multi-year program focused on developing a plan for managing sand as a resource rather than as a waste product. The foundation of this study is numerical modeling which is highly dependent on site specific wave data. As part of this study, a significant level of data collection, surveying and numerical modeling will be performed. Currently deployed wave buoys do not provide the wave data that is necessary to conduct this study.