B.01 W912EP22Z0033 PR Big 3 Industry Day - 081722-0-USACE - Meeting.pdf

U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS

RE: *

PUERTO RICO FLOOD *

MANAGEMENT SUPPLEMENTAL *

PROJECTS DAY MEETING *

DATE : August 17, 2022

TIME : 9:00 a.m.

CLIENT : U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS

ADDRESS : 701 San Marco Blvd, Jacksonville, Florida

HELD AT : Colegio de Ingenieros y Agrimensores de PR Urb. Roosevelt 500 Antolín Nin Martínez Street San Juan, Puerto Rico

APPEARANCES

Mrs. Lyan García - Programs & Project Manager

SPEAKERS:

Mr. Stephen Dupries - Engineering Division Mr. Chad Gillan - Engineering Division Mr. Mark Waddell - Construction Division Mr. Jorge Ayala - Construction Division Mrs. Maricarmen Crespo - Construction Division Mrs. Anelis Nazario Castillo - Contracting Mrs. Karla García - Contracting Mr. Michael P. Wielputz - MTC Savannah District

COURT REPORTER:

Mr. Daniel Figueroa Sanabria

1 ***

2 PROCEEDINGS

3 ***

4 MORNING SESSION

5 MS. LYAN GARCÍA:

6 Good morning. Welcome to the Puerto Rico Big Three

7 Industry Day. Can you hear me? Can you hear me now, 8 better? Okay. I’ll just get closer to the microphone.

9 My name is Lyan García. I’m a Project Manager at the

10 Jacksonville District Puerto Rico Integrated Program

11 Office. Today we’re going to be providing presentations

12 on the requirements for the Puerto Rico Big Three Flood

13 Risk Management Projects, ‘Río Puerto Nuevo, Río de la

14 Plata’, and ‘Río Grande de Arecibo’.

15 This year we decided to do things a little bit

16 differently. We’re going do separate sessions for the

17 benefit of you, the attendees. The morning session we’ll

18 discuss the general requirements of the projects, while

19 the afternoon session we’ll provide some more details that

20 subcontractors, material suppliers, and equipment dealers

21 should consider as we prepare for the construction

22 projects to start.

23 Before we continue, I’d like to invite Major Soto, 24 the Deputy District Engineer for Puerto Rico and the

25 Virgin Islands to provide some opening remarks.

1 MAJOR SOTO:

2 Hello and welcome, everyone. I’m Major Jesús Soto, 3 Deputy District Engineer Commander for Antilles team. On

4 behalf of Brigadier General Kelly, South Atlantic Division

5 Commander, and Colonel Booth, Jacksonville District

6 Commander, it is my pleasure to welcome you to our

7 Industry Day.

8 The United States Army Corps of Engineers, myself, 9 and our team here in Antilles, are excited to host this

10 event as a way to gather all industry professionals

11 together at a single venue where we can ask questions, 12 answer questions, and share ideas. The purpose of the

13 Industry Day is so that USACE can meet with members of the

14 construction industry to provide information regarding

15 recently funded construction and flood risk reduction

16 projects.

17 This year our team will focus on our Big Three

18 Projects, ‘Río Puerto Nuevo, Río de la Plata’ and ‘Río

19 Grande de Arecibo’. These projects have a magnitude

20 complexity and a high material and equipment demand. We

21 will have the opportunity to acquire more information of

22 Puerto Rico Supplemental Flood Risk Management Projects

23 which are funded under the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018, 24 that addresses the damages in 2017 that were caused by

25 ‘Huracán María’. But more importantly, is we will spend

1 valuable time together.

2 This event will give you the opportunity to interact

3 with industry partners, good relationships, and facilitate

4 a better understanding of USACE mission and contractors

5 capabilities. Let’s face it, without you, we would not be

6 able to build these contracts that would positively impact

7 our communities in Puerto Rico. Looking forward to seeing

8 everyone out there enjoy all the information that is

9 provided. And now I will... Following me will be Sharon

10 Rodríguez, Deputy Chief of Programs in Management Division

11 of Jacksonville. Thank you.

12 MS. RODRÍGUEZ:

13 Good morning, everyone. I’m Sharon Rodríguez-

14 Hernández, I’m the Deputy Chief for Programs and Project

15 Management, Jacksonville District. On behalf of Colonel

16 James Booth our District Commander, I want to thank you

17 for being here today with us on this big day, the Puerto

18 Rico Big Three Industry Day.

19 It is with big excitement that we welcome you to this

20 event, because it shows your interest in partnering with

21 the US Army Corps of Engineers and being part of this

22 unprecedented program for our Puerto Rico. Many of us are

23 part of this team here and our hearts has driven us to be

24 here with you. You know, many of us have jobs before in

25 other districts with USACE and found our way to be here

1 and be part of this big moment for Puerto Rico.

2 One thing to let you know that we have brought with

3 us an incredible, an amazing team of experts. We have

4 here with us our Small Business person, Kimberly Daniel-

5 Ray. Kimberly, raise your hand. Karla García, she’s the

6 Chief of Contracting for the IPO, Integrated Program

7 Office, for the Puerto Rico program. Chad Gillan, he’s

8 our Supplemental Lead for Engineering. Maricarmen Crespo, 9 she’s there in the back, our Airy Engineer, she will be

10 leading the construction efforts here in Puerto Rico.

11 This is big for us, it’s big, we had a virtual one, 12 we know COVID kind of paused everything in our lives, but

13 here, we’re here back trying to beat COVID and to get

14 business as usual, and trying to work together and

15 collaborate, because there’s nothing like face-to-face

16 interaction.

17 We’re going to be discussing these big, main features

18 for the two upcoming contracts that we anticipate to award

19 in fiscal year 23. We took a big step as we awarded the

20 first contract, ‘La Chuleta’, that’s a big, big joy for

21 us. It shows that we’re here, we’re present, and we’re

22 not leaving, we’re not leaving until we finish building

23 all this.

24 This program will bring... Just to have an idea of

25 the magnitude, you know, I know that our engineering team

1 is going to come and going to cover many of these things.

2 There’s twenty-six, about twenty-six bridge replacements.

3 We’re talking about thirty miles of improved channels in, 4 or new channels, eleven miles of floodwalls and levees, 5 risk reduction to over 55,000 structures, while we’re

6 protecting twenty-nine acres of mangroves, twent... fifty-

7 four acres of wetland, ten acres of estoril lagoon while

8 we’re building incidental recreational features and we’re

9 protecting approximately 100,610 people. And I look at

10 that number for some appears small, for me, it’s big.

11 It’s big because it’s not just the people that reside in

12 that area, it’s the many people that get affected, that

13 live in different areas, remote areas in Puerto Rico, 14 outside the Island that are touched, that are affected by

15 any damage, or any, any suffering that our people

16 encounter every time there’s an event.

17 I know there’s economic interest given, driving many

18 of you on coming here today to try to get business with

19 the Corps, but I see you as our allies, as we spread the

20 word of what we’re doing with these projects. We need you

21 to spread the word with us in collaboration, finding a way

22 of doing this better, being successful, and trying to beat

23 our schedules, because the faster we build things, the

24 more protected we make our Puerto Rico.

25 So, I want to thank you, all of you for being here, 1 and I look for years of collaboration as we build these

2 projects. Thank you.

3 MS. LYAN GARCÍA:

4 Thank you, Major Soto, and thank you, Sharon.

5 It was working this morning. Just give me a minute.

6 Okay.

7 So, the agenda for this morning, will include a

8 general overview of the Big Three Projects. Then

9 representatives from our Engineering Division, Mr. Chad

10 Gillan and Mr. Stephen Dupries, you guys want to raise

11 your hands, will provide more details on the designs.

12 Then representatives from our Construction Division, 13 Mrs. Maricarmen Crespo, back in the back, and Mr. Mark

14 Waddell, in the corner over there, will discuss

15 construction considerations. Mr. Michael Wielputz, in the

16 corner over there, from the Savannah District Materials

17 Testing Center of Expertise, is going to provide more

18 information on the inspection and validation of the

19 laboratories. To conclude our morning session, 20 representatives from Contracting Office, Mrs. Karla

21 García and Mrs. Anelis Nazario, and Mrs. Kimberly Daniel-

22 Ray, from our Small Business Program, will be presenting

23 on how to do business with Jacksonville and small business

24 opportunities.

25 As I stated earlier, the afternoon session will be

1 more focused for material suppliers, subcontractors, and

2 equipment dealers, but a lot of the discussion in the

3 morning will be included in the afternoon. Mr. Jorge

4 Ayala from the Construction Division, right over here, 5 he’s going to be giving the presentation in the afternoon.

6 Before we continue, I’d like to let everybody know

7 what some of the rules are for the event today. We have

8 a lot of people on the Webex. We will not be monitoring

9 the chat, so, I disabled it. If you do have any

10 questions, be sure to use ProjNet. I can’t guarantee that

11 if you do write something that we’ll be able to answer it.

12 We’re asking the audience not interrupt presenters to ask

13 questions or make comments. We are inviting everybody to

14 submit questions officially through ProjNet. You can

15 visit the ProjNet website that’s here on the slide, and

16 use the solicitation number and bidder inquiry key to

17 submit your questions. You have until August 26th to do

18 so. This is going to allow everybody on this panel here

19 to provide a formal and comprehensive response through

20 ProjNet.

21 (Interval - interruption recording)

22 MS. LYAN GARCÍA:

23 Yeah. Oh, here, sorry. Alright. This is why I have

24 them. Alright. Thanks, guys.

25 Alright. We also have someone in the room that will

1 be preparing a transcript of the event. The transcript

2 will be posted on SAM.gov. Okay? The presentations are

3 also going to be posted on SAM.gov and the attendance

4 sheet will also be posted on SAM.gov. So, probably next

5 week, I would advise that you visit SAM.gov again to

6 download all of the information that’s going to be

7 provided at the event today.

8 After the ‘Río Puerto Nuevo’ project design slides, 9 we are going to allow a fifteen-minute break so that

10 everybody can get up and stretch your legs. Okay?

11 Alright.

12 Okay. So, the first project that we’re going to

13 provide an overview on, I’m not going to talk any

14 specifics on design, I’m going to leave that to the

15 Engineering Division to discuss that. I’m just going to

16 give an overview of each of the projects ‘Río Puerto

17 Nuevo, Río de la Plata’ and ‘Río Grande de Arecibo’.

18 So, we’ll start with ‘Río Puerto Nuevo’. So, the

19 ‘Río Puerto Nuevo’ Flood Risk Management Project is

20 located in San Juan, in the Metro Area. The project will

21 provide protection to many residential, commercial, public

22 structures, major port facilities, recreation facilities, 23 government offices, and water treatment plants in the

24 Metro Area. The proposed improvements will consist of

25 earth lined channels, concrete lined channels, stilling

1 basins, new replaced or modified bridges, a dredge

2 disposal area, sewer lined modifications and replacements, 3 and recreational features.

4 ‘Río Puerto Nuevo’ consists of eight supplemental

5 construction contracts. The contracts shown in the green

6 are the cost-shared contracts, and these, these are

7 completed and they’re in the closeout phase. The

8 presentations today will focus on the eight supplemental

9 projects.

10 So, Supplemental Contract 1, and that’s the one shown

11 in yellow, consists of a sewer line relocation and channel

12 improvements at the upper ‘Quebrada Margarita’.

13 Construction takes place in a narrow, congested corridor

14 between an industrial neighborhood and PR-2, ‘la’ Kennedy, 15 and PR-22, ‘Expreso De Diego’. Limited working area

16 should be expected, and there are several utilities to

17 contend with in this area, so, close coordination will be

18 required with Luma and Puerto Rico Highway Authority.

19 Supplemental Contract 2 that’s shown in the dark

20 blue, the dark blue circles, is the Roosevelt Avenue

21 Bridge replacement and adjacent construction. This

22 contract includes the construction of a temporary bridge, 23 management in traffic, and relocation of utilities.

24 Supplemental Contract 3, shown in the pink, so, 25 that’s the pink line, consists of construction of the main

1 channel along ‘Río Piedras’ and utility relocations.

2 Construction for this contract will occur close to a

3 police station and public housing.

4 Supplemental Contract 4, that’s shown in the red, 5 just south of the pink line, consists of a stilling basin

6 and four bridge replacements over the Piñeiro Avenue

7 interchange with the ‘Expreso Las Américas’. So, these

8 are the four red dots on the map. Those are the bridge

9 replacements. Construction of this contract should not

10 commence until the downstream channel improvements are

11 completed for Contract 3. So, whatever is in the pink

12 line, needs to be done before we start with Contract 4.

13 And close coordination is required with Puerto Rico

14 Highway Authority for this contract for the management of

15 traffic. Construction may require a phase approach, and

16 there’s also many electrical utilities in the area, so, 17 close coordination will be required with Luma.

18 Supplemental Contract 5, it’s divided into two

19 contracts, and these are the ones in orange. So, you’ll

20 see that there’s the orange line, and there’s two orange

21 circles.

22 Contract 5A consists of the Notre Dame Bridge

23 replacement and adjacent channel construction. Other

24 features are going to include the construction of a

25 temporary bridge, maintenance of traffic, and relocation

1 of utilities. Construction occurs in a residential

2 neighborhood and the public will need to be regularly

3 informed of construction activities. So, the USACE team

4 is going to need to maintain close communication with the

5 community as construction continues.

6 Contract 5B consists of replacing the West ‘Avenida

7 Piñeiro’ Bridge and channel improvements to the Josefina

8 Gap. Construction should not commence until the

9 downstream channel improvements of Contract 3 are

10 completed. Coordination with the Puerto Rico Highway

11 Authority is important for the management of traffic, as

12 well as the Municipality of San Juan, since the Josefina

13 Gap Channel improvements will impact ‘Parque Luis Muñoz

14 Marín’.

15 Supplemental Contract 6, shown in the aqua blue

16 color, is the construction of the lower main channel for

17 ‘Río Piedras’ and ‘Buenavista’ diversion channel. It

18 includes utility relocations, and replacement and new

19 construction of bridges. Construction occurs in a

20 residential neighborhood. The public will need to be

21 regularly informed of construction activities.

22 Supplemental Contract 7, shown in the purple, 23 consists of ten bridge replacements, and ‘Quebrada

24 Josefina’ and ‘Quebrada Doña Ana’ channel improvements.

25 Construction should not commence until the downstream

1 portion, that’s Contract 5B, is completed. It takes place

2 in a very congested area that is mostly residential, so, 3 close coordination and communication with the community

4 will be required, as well as coordination with the Puerto

5 Rico Highway Authority for management of traffic.

6 The last contract, which is Supplemental Contract for

7 ‘La Chuleta’, as Sharon had mentioned, it’s already

8 awarded and it is essentially the disposal area for the

9 activities on these contracts that were discussed.

10 Sorry. Alright. So, this is the schedule for the

11 ‘Río Puerto Nuevo’ contracts. You’ll notice that a lot of

12 these are still in the design phase or finalizing real

13 estate acquisition. Procurement for Contract 1 will be

14 around early Winter of 2024. Procurement for Contracts 2

15 and 3 will be next year. This will be followed by

16 Contract 5A in 2024, and then Contracts 4 and 5B.

17 Contracts 6 and 7, procurement is expected in 2026. And

18 construction completion for the whole project is expected

19 to be done by 2032. So, this is in about ten years.

20 Moving on to ‘Río de la Plata’. So, ‘Río de la

21 Plata’ is located, the project is located between Dorado

22 and Toa Baja. So, the ‘Río de la Plata’ Flood Risk

23 Management Project consists of several miles of channel

24 improvements, realignment, and levees to protect the

25 Municipalities of Dorado and Toa Baja. On the image, 1 you’ll see that the West levee runs along Dorado, and the

2 East levee is along Toa Baja.

3 One contract has been completed, so that’s

4 Contract 1A, and that’s in the green. And then ongoing

5 construction is the Dorado Bridge channel widening and

6 scour protection project, that’s in the blue. And...

7 Excuse me, that’s in the pink, actually. And then the

8 articulated concrete block mat and TOKI project which is

9 in the blue. Excuse me, my mouth is running dry.

10 So, the remaining contracts are the ones that are

11 labeled in yellow, and red, and purple. These are the

12 Supplemental Contracts that are funded with BBA 18.

13 Supplemental Contract 1, which is in the yellow, it

14 consists of channel improvements and levees as well as

15 Contract 3, which is in the red. Contract 1 includes four

16 culverts, both of these include utility relocations. So, 17 close coordination will be required with Luma and PRASA.

18 You can’t hear? I’m sorry. Is this better?

19 UNIDENTIFIED PERSON:

20 (Out of microphone) the mass...

21 MS. LYAN GARCÍA:

22 Okay. So... Okay.

23 MR. DUPRIES:

24 So, I mean, we’ll go into detail with that in the

25 engineering part of it. I mean, she’s giving a very broad

1 overview of the projects. So, I think we’re okay.

2 MS. LYAN GARCÍA:

3 Yeah. Does the audience agree with that? Yeah.

4 Okay.

5 The third contract is a relocation of 1,000 feet of

6 the Super Aqueduct. So, this needs to be done because of

7 the channel improvements in Contract 3 near PR-22

8 ‘expreso’.

9 As many of you know, the Super Aqueduct is a seventy-

10 two inch waterline that supplies potable water to the

11 North coast municipalities from Arecibo to San Juan. So, 12 this construction is expected to be very complex and very

13 close coordination will be expected with PRASA.

14 Since last Industry Day, I’m assuming that some of

15 you were able to attend, the Virtual Industry Day, there

16 have been some updates to the project. The design was

17 optimized, and we recommended the removal of the PR-2

18 replacement, while still providing the same benefits to

19 both municipalities. So, you’ll notice that the PR-2

20 bridge replacement isn’t shown on this image, and it’s not

21 shown as Supplemental Contract 2, was the number, was the

22 contract name for it. So, we’ve recommended removal of

23 that, but we’re still awaiting formal approval from

24 headquarters, we’re working on a validation report, but

25 formal approval is pending.

1 Next slide. So, this is the schedule for the ‘Río de

2 la Plata’. All the Contracts 1, 3, and the Super Aqueduct

3 relocation, they’re all in the design stages and were in

4 the middle of real estate acquisition. The procurement

5 for Contract 1 is expected for Fall of next year, and for

6 Contract 3 is expected for Fall of 2026. The Super

7 Aqueduct relocation schedule is under development, but we

8 anticipate going out for procurement in 2025, and

9 construction is expected to take two years. So, the

10 overall completion for ‘Río de la Plata’ is expected to be

11 done by 2029.

12 And the last project, ‘Río Grande de Arecibo’, which

13 is located in Arecibo, the project currently consists of

14 one contract. A completed construction is shown in the

15 green color in the South area.

16 So, Supplemental Contract 1, construction will evolve

17 a combination of two floodwalls, 1.7 miles of levees along

18 the Arecibo River, 1.5 miles of channel improvements, 19 three bridge replacements, including the PR-10, 20 Constitution 1, and Constitution 2 Bridges, and an

21 estimated 7.2 acres of mangrove habitat creation. So, all

22 of the other line work on this image are the different

23 features under Contract 1.

24 As part of the bridge replacement work, the closure

25 of the PR-10 Bridge is tentatively planned, and will

1 require closer coordination with the Puerto Rico Highway

2 Authority, the Municipality of Arecibo, and the local

3 community before and throughout the duration of these

4 bridge construction activities.

5 The Army Corps of Engineers is in the process of

6 completing the 95% design package, and tentative

7 advertisement date as shown on this next slide, is

8 expected for the Fall or Winter of next year. At the next

9 Industry Day, we’ll have some more information on this

10 project, on any changes, if necessary, on the move

11 alignment, and the potential impacts of overlapping

12 contract may have on the borrowing stages.

13 So, that’s all I have for the overview of the

14 projects. I’m going to ask Stephen Dupries to come up and

15 give some more details on the ‘Río Puerto Nuevo’ design.

16 Thank you.

17 MR. DUPRIES:

18 Good morning. Stephen Dupries, I’m Lead Civil

19 Engineer for the ‘Río Puerto Nuevo’ Projects. I’m going

20 to go through the different contracts here more in detail.

21 It’s really brief, more bullet points. I’m not going to

22 go into details about the individual line items that

23 you’re going to see on the individual screens, but...

24 We’ll start with the ‘La Chuleta’ Project. ‘La

25 Chuleta’ is a material maintenance area. It’s being built

1 to receive excavated material from Contracts 1, 2, and 3, 2 potentially, some of the other contracts, but that’s the

3 main purpose. It’s designed to receive approximately

4 350,000 cubic yards of excavated material from the

5 different contracts. Magnitude of awards, $4.4 million.

6 It will begin construction at the end of this month in

7 order to proceed.

8 Contract 1. Magnitude of construction, $100,000,000

9 to $250,000,000. Estimated advertisement, Winter of 2024.

10 It consists of 3,300 linear feet of concrete U-frame

11 channel that’s approximate thirty-five feet wide. The

12 project will consist of soil mixing, soil improvements, 13 two braced steel sheet pile for the channel construction

14 and water diversion. It will consist of utility

15 relocations that include a sanitary sewer siphon, 16 electrical, that includes both distribution and

17 transmission, 115KV 38KV lines, telecommunication lines.

18 Secondary drainage systems have to be relocated and

19 redirected into that new U-frame, concrete U-frame.

20 Working within the existing channel units, water diversion

21 will be very important for that project.

22 Contract 2. Magnitude of construction will be

23 $25,000,000 to $100,000,000. Estimated advertisement is

24 Spring of 2023. Roosevelt Avenue Bridge replacement, it’s

25 a six-lane bridge with turn lanes. It’s a precast, 1 prestressed concrete beam bridge, it’s a two-span bridge

2 that’s going to be put in. There will be a three-lane

3 temporary detour bridge with sidewalk that will need to be

4 constructed, put in place. That will be like an Acrow

5 bridge or a US bridge, some sort of prefabricated steel

6 bridge that will be founded on the channel wall.

7 There’s approximately 550 linear feet of main channel

8 improvements that are included as part of Contract 2, that

9 is 165 feet wide, that main channel. The main channel

10 improvements will consist of concrete drilled shafts that

11 are approximately ninety to one hundred feet deep. It’s

12 a natural bottom channel with riprap revetments at the

13 bridge abutments. Yeah. Get a little closer. There you

14 go. Yeah, I can hear myself now. And that riprap

15 revetment if for scour protection at the bridge.

16 Utility relocations on this project will include

17 thirty-inch water main, ten-inch portable water main, 18 underground utilities, underground utilities that includes

19 telecommunications, electric, secondary drainage systems

20 that will tie into that, into that channel improvement

21 also. Maintenance of traffic on this project will be a

22 major part, a six-line corridor.

23 Contract 3. This is primarily a channel project.

24 So, magnitude of construction, $250,000,000 to

25 $500,000,000. Estimated advertisement, Summer of 2023.

1 It’s approximately 6,000 linear feet of main channel

2 improvements ranging from 150 feet at the downstream end

3 down to 150 feet at the upstream end. It’s mostly, 4 approximately 160 feet wide for the majority of that

5 project. Three hundred linear feet of Josefina Channel

6 improvements are also included as part of this project, 7 and it’s roughly forty-five feet at the Josefina Channel

8 at the confluence.

9 The channel improvements will consist of concrete

10 drilled shafts that are approximately ninety to one

11 hundred feet deep to natural bottom, riprap revetment will

12 also be included at the confluence points, sanitary sewer

13 siphon that has to be put in at De Diego Expressway, it’s

14 all for scour protection.

15 Utility relocations will include forty-eight inch

16 portable water main, and there’s an associated utility

17 bridge that gets put in with that. Sanitary sewer siphon

18 that gets put in, thirty inch, which you see here on the

19 screen. There’s overhead electric transmission and

20 distribution, that’s 38KV and 4KV distribution, overhead

21 telecommunication, secondary drainage systems all along

22 the channel.

23 Contract 4. Magnitude of construction is

24 $250,000,000 to $500,000,000. Estimated advertisement, 25 Summer of 2025. It’s a replacement... Primary parts of

1 this project are the replacement of four major bridges, 2 including PR-18 over the ‘Río Piedras’, it’s a twelve-lane

3 bridge existing. The Piñeiro Avenue Bridge, a six-lane

4 bridge, PR-17. And then the Southeast and Northeast

5 access ramps off of PR-18 onto Piñeiro Avenue, onto and

6 off of Piñeiro Avenue. There’s also 2,850 linear feet of

7 channel improvements that get done. That channel

8 improvement ranges from 150 feet wide at the downstream

9 end down to 110 feet wide at the upstream end. And the

10 majority of Contract 4 is 120 foot wide channel throughout

11 the project.

12 Channel improvements will consist of concrete drilled

13 shafts for the channel walls, approximately ninety to one

14 hundred feet deep, six-foot diameter. Articulated

15 concrete block mattresses will be used for the channel

16 bottom. There’s also a stilling basin at the downstream

17 end where it ties into Contract 3.

18 Utility relocations will include thirty-six inch

19 potable water main relocation, twenty-one inch sanitary

20 sewer siphon relocation, forty-two inch gravity sanitary

21 sewer main relocation, overhead electric transmission and

22 distribution, overhead telecommunications relocations, 23 secondary drainage systems. There’s also gas main on

24 Piñeiro Avenue that will need to be relocated as part of

25 that bridge replacement.

1 Maintenance of traffic is going to be a major part of

2 this project with PR-18 being a primary artery in and out

3 of San Juan. Temporary bridges will need to be used, same

4 as on Contract 2. The US bridge... Sorry. The temporary

5 bridges, US bridge, Acrow on three of the bridges. PR-18

6 Bridge is actually what we are going to do as a permanent

7 widening of that bridge to the West where instead of that

8 being a twelve-lane bridge in the end that would end up

9 being a sixteen-lane bridge to account for a future

10 project that the Highway Authority has planned for a

11 flyover onto Piñeiro Avenue.

12 Got to get back into... Here we go. Contract 5B.

13 Magnitude of construction, $100,000,000 to $250,000,000.

14 Estimated... I’m sorry, this is Contract 5A. Magnitude

15 of construction is $25,000,000 to $100,000,000. Estimated

16 advertisement is 2024, Spring of 2024. It’s the

17 replacement of ‘Calle’ Notre Dame Bridge, which is a two-

18 lane single span, precast, prestressed concrete beam

19 bridge. A temporary single deep lane detour bridge will

20 be constructed just upstream of the existing bridge to

21 facilitate maintenance to traffic, and a demolition of the

22 existing bridge, which is depicted on the screen.

23 It also consists of the construction of 300 linear

24 feet of the main channel improvements, that’s ninety-five

25 feet in width from channel wall to channel wall. The

1 channel improvements will consist of concrete drilled

2 shafts, six-foot diameter, ninety to one hundred feet

3 deep. Articulated concrete block mattresses will be used

4 for the channel bottom.

5 Utility relocations will include forty-two inch

6 gravity sewer main replacement relocation. Overhead

7 electric, both transmission and distribution would be left

8 overhead and underground. Overhead telecommunications

9 will be relocated, and secondary drainage systems will be

10 brought into the channel. Maintenance of traffic will be

11 a major part of this project.

12 Contract 5B. Magnitude of construction is

13 $100,000,000 to $250,000,000. Estimated advertisement is

14 Fall of 2025. Replacement of Piñeiro Avenue Bridge. It’s

15 a six-lane, single span, precast, prestressed concrete

16 beam bridge. It also consists of 2,150 linear feet of the

17 Josefina Channel improvements that’s forty-five feet in

18 width.

19 Channel improvements will consist of six-foot

20 diameter... Let’s see. This is not right what I’ve

21 written here. Well, under the... This is right.

22 Concrete drilled shafts within the limits of the bridge

23 that are six-foot in diameter that will be ninety to one

24 hundred foot deep. Braced steel sheet pile will be

25 utilized upstream and downstream that will tie into

1 Contract 3 at the confluence with ‘Río Piedras’.

2 Articulated concrete block mattresses will be used for the

3 channel bottom.

4 Utility relocations include overhead and underground

5 electric, overhead, underground telecommunications, 6 secondary drainage system, and a gas main along Piñeiro

7 Avenue.

8 Maintenance of traffic will be a major part of this

9 project also. Three-lane temporary detour bridge with

10 sidewalk as depicted. Demo of existing trapezoidal

11 concrete channel will also be included as part of this, 12 that’s what Josefina Channel consists of right now. So, 13 disposal of that material will be a major part of the

14 project.

15 Supplemental Contract 6. Magnitude of construction, 16 $250,000,000 to $500,000,000. Estimated advertisement is

17 Summer 2026. Almost 9,000 linear feet of main channel

18 improvements ranging from 110 feet at the downstream end

19 to ninety-five feet at the upstream end. The majority of

20 Contract 6 main channel is ninety-five feet in width.

21 This also includes 4,200 linear feet of ‘Buenavista’

22 diversion channel improvements that’s thirty-six feet

23 wide.

24 Main channel improvements consist of concrete drilled

25 shafts, six foot in diameter, ninety to one hundred foot

1 deep. Articulated concrete block mattress channel will be

2 used for the channel bottom.

3 ‘Buenavista’ diversion improvements will consist of

4 both concrete U-frame channel and concrete box culverts.

5 There’s also two short-span bridges will be included as

6 part of the ‘Buenavista’ diversion.

7 And then utility relocations will include multiple

8 sanitary sewer siphons in both ‘Buenavista’ and the main

9 channel relocation. There’s a twelve-inch sanitary sewer

10 siphon and an eighteen-inch sanitary sewer siphon, 11 overhead and underground electric, overhead and

12 underground telecommunications, secondary drainage

13 systems.

14 It’s very tight working limits along the main channel

15 along ‘Calle Sorbona’ and ‘Calle Galileo’ that will result

16 in temporary lane closures. Extensive maintenance to

17 traffic will be needed and formulated.

18 Contract 7. Magnitude of construction, $250,000,000

19 to $500,000,000. Estimated advertisement, Spring of 2026.

20 Josefina Channel will consist of 5,300 linear feet, a

21 forty-five foot wide channel below the confluence with

22 ‘Doña Ana’ Channel, and twenty-six foot wide channel

23 upstream at that point. ‘Doña Ana’ Channel is 3,500

24 linear feet of twenty-six foot wide channel.

25 The channel improvements for the entire section of

1 Contract 7, at this point, is looking like braced steel

2 sheet pile with ACBM channel bottom.

3 There’s ten bridges to be replaced as part of this

4 project. They’ll be simple single-span precast, 5 prestressed concrete beam bridges. Utility relocations

6 include multiple sanitary sewer siphons. Overhead and

7 underground electric, telecommunications. Secondary

8 drainage systems will be brought into the channels.

9 So, something that should have stood out with the

10 tight corridors, you’ve got challenges that will be

11 brought up, so, we’ve got limited space.

12 Water diversion, we’re working within the limits of

13 the channel on a number of the projects. So, water

14 diversion and water care has to be thought of. Material

15 disposal, excavated material disposal, and hauling will be

16 a consideration for all projects.

17 Traffic control for anything dealing with bridge

18 replacements, or just in general, moving of equipment.

19 And in long need items, we’ve got multiple contracts

20 happening at the same time. It will result in competing

21 efforts for the resources. So, concrete is going to be

22 major, major concerns. And, obviously, there’s listed

23 items here on the screen, but... That’s it.

24 I think the intent now is to potentially take a

25 little bit of a break. Lyan?

1 We’re going to take a little break, and then we’ll

2 get back to, we’ll go on to ‘La Plata’ after that short

3 break.

4 BREAK

5 OFF THE RECORD

6 MS. LYAN GARCÍA:

7 Okay. ‘La Plata’. I do want to add that we are

8 ahead of schedule. So, the team, we talked and we’re

9 going to add a Q&A session at the end. So, we’re going to

10 allow everybody to finish the presentations, and then

11 we’ll allow a Q&A. We are going to ask that the Q&A be

12 focused on what is on the slides. And there are some

13 questions that we probably can’t answer right now, so, any

14 questions that we can’t answer right now, we’ll ask that

15 you submit them through ProjNet. I will add that we do

16 have a court reporter here that’s recording everything, 17 so, any questions that you do ask will be recorded and

18 then we can look at that transcript later and address them

19 through ProjNet as well. And that transcript is going to

20 be uploaded at the SAM.gov, so, everybody will have access

21 to it.

22 So, I’ll turn it over to Mr. Gillan, so that he can

23 present on ‘Río de la Plata’. Thank you.

24 MR. GILLAN:

25 Good morning. My name is Chad Gillan. I’m the Lead

1 Supplemental Engineer for all the Antilles projects.

2 So, with ‘La Plata’ we have four different contracts.

3 One is currently under construction and plan to finish up

4 fairly shortly. And then we have our three other

5 contracts, Contracts 1, 3, and 4.

6 So, Contract 1, I’m just going to talk about the

7 major features. Essentially, it is a channel with levees

8 on each side of the channel. We also have four concrete

9 culverts. Each of the culvert structures has precast pipe

10 five to seven foot in diameter. The headwalls will all be

11 precap or recast in place, and we’ll have composite flap

12 gates. But maintenance roads across the levee and within

13 the project boundaries for maintenance. Drainage ditches, 14 so we can keep the water flowing where it needs to go.

15 And utility relocations, not quite as extensive as ‘Río

16 Puerto Nuevo’, obviously, but we do have some waterlines, 17 sewer lines, electric lines, telecommunication lines that

18 will all have to be relocated.

19 We have a disposal area for the excavated material, 20 and that will be shown in the next few slides. And we

21 have potential Wetland mitigation we haven’t quite worked

22 out through yet. But that’s another... And the

23 mitigation will be mangled (phonetic).

24 The top section is the East levee, and on the right

25 you can see the sun protection. On the right of the top

1 section is the center channel. On the bottom section, the

2 center channel is on the left. Again stone protection, 3 and the sun protection is not everywhere, but it’s in most

4 places, and it’s to protect the river from coming outside

5 of the channel, and possibly eroding away our levees.

6 Magnitude of construction is $250,000,000 to

7 $500,000,000. Estimated advertisement, Fall of 2023. And

8 estimated period of performance is three and a half years.

9 Contract 3. It shows a disposal area on the right.

10 It has an East levee and a channel. The West levee stops

11 in Contract 1, and you can see the two disposal areas up

12 on the right hand corner, down in the left. Very similar

13 to Contract 1, it also has stone protection, it has the

14 maintenance roads, drainage ditches, utility relocations, 15 and, again, the disposal areas for excavated materials.

16 Top section is the seepage berm where there’s some

17 uplift issues that we’re dealing that’s the purpose of the

18 seepage berm. East levee and in lower section you can see

19 where the channel and the slope protection, and the stone

20 protection is to keep the smaller flows within the main

21 body of the channel.

22 Magnitude of construction, $100,000,000 to

23 $250,000,000. Estimated advertisement is Fall 2026.

24 Period of performance is approximately three years.

25 Last contract on ‘Río de la Plata’ is the Super

1 Aqueduct. We need to relocate the seventy-two inch

2 diameter potable water line below the new channel. The

3 current line is a prestressed concrete cylinder pipe. It

4 supplies water to 600,000 people, and travels from Arecibo

5 to San Juan. Heavy coordination with PRASA is going to be

6 required on this project.

7 The considerations for this is we cannot take the

8 line out of service. And again, it’s potable water, so, 9 it requires several hot taps of the existing line to

10 create temporary water diversion lines while we relocate

11 this line under a new channel. And then upstream and

12 downstream of it, as part of this contract, there will be

13 some channel excavations that will go to the disposal

14 areas, but it’s minimal compared to the other contracts.

15 Magnitude of construction is $10,000,000 to

16 $25,000,000. Estimated advertisement is sometime in 2025, 17 we haven’t really narrowed that down at this time. And

18 estimated period of performance is approximately two

19 years.

20 ‘Río Grande de Arecibo’. The major features of this

21 project, the major feature is the levee itself, but then

22 then we have a terminus wall that’s at the mouth of the

23 river, we have another floodwall that goes underneath PR-2

24 Bridge, we have three bridges that we’re going to replace, 25 and we also have improvements to the Santiago Channel.

1 And I’ll talk about each one of those figures in the next

2 few slides. We also have a mitigation area and drainage

3 ditches, again, to just get the water to where it needs to

4 go after we put up the levee.

5 Magnitude of construction, $100,000,000 to

6 $250,000,000. Advertisement, Fall of 2023. And the

7 period of performance is approximately five years.

8 So, the levee, the levee is 1.3 miles long. And

9 shown in the figure on the right, it’s going to be in the

10 Arecibo River.

11 Levee details. It will comprise of compacted lime

12 rock. It will have stone protection, a great deal of

13 stone protection, where the full slope is as stone

14 protection on the river side and just slope protection on

15 the Santiago side or the protected side, and then we’ll

16 also have a cutoff wall.

17 The Santiago Channel will be improved, because now

18 that we have this levee in place, it keeps the main flows

19 of the Arecibo River away from the town. However, now we

20 need to collect that water and take it out to the mouth, 21 versus it going directly into the flood plain, that’s why

22 the Santiago Channel needs to be improved.

23 On the right is the existing channel. So, the new

24 channel will be much, much larger, a forty-foot base, one

25 to three-foot slopes. The slopes will have stone

1 protection. Some of the specific concerns with this is

2 that we’ll have to maintain the existing channel flows

3 while we improve this channel. We’ll also have to add

4 coordination with the bridges, because the bridges have to

5 be complete as everything ties in. And the disposal of

6 this material will be put back in the borrowed area that

7 the levee material was taken out of.

8 A terminus wall is at the mouth of the river. You

9 can see on the right side looking... On the right is PR, 10 is... house (phonetic) bridge, and you see where the

11 floodwall will go, and then where the levee will pick up.

12 We have the floodwall underneath the PR-2 Bridge. On

13 the right picture it shows the underside of the PR-2

14 Bridge, and that’s important, because there’s not a lot of

15 space to work.

16 So, if we floodwall details, it’s a basic T.O

17 (phonetic) wall design. You have a stand, a base, and it

18 will be founded on micropiles. The construction

19 consideration with this is that there is load clearance.

20 So, joining and installing those micropiles will be a

21 little bit of a challenge. And then there will also be

22 water diversion associated with creating this wall and the

23 micropile work.

24 We already replaced three bridges, PR-10 Bridge, 25 Constitution 1 Bridge, and Constitution 2 Bridge. The

1 lower two photos show that one, the existing

2 Constitution 1 Bridge, the Constitution 2 Bridge is very

3 similar, and then the PR-10 Bridge on the lower right.

4 The bridges will all be very similar, approximately

5 102 feet from abutment to abutment. Abutments will be

6 drilled shafts. The superstructure will be precast

7 Florida beams. The sequence of construction is currently

8 we’re planning to construct, or rebuild, or replace

9 Constitution 1 and 2 Bridges at the same time. And then

10 after that, construct PR-10 Bridge.

11 We are also expecting full road closures. So, we’re

12 expecting to close the road entirely with no temporary

13 bridges, just to speed up construction and get it done

14 quicker. We’ve done an extensive traffic studies, as

15 well, to show that there shouldn’t be much impact.

16 And just other features, we have two siphons, one at

17 Constitution 2 Bridge, one at PR-10 Bridge, and then we

18 also have a Wetland mitigation, which is the mangrove

19 habitat.

20 And that’s all for ‘Río de la Plata’ in Arecibo.

21 Thank you.

22 MR. WADDELL:

23 Hello. I’m Mark Waddell from Construction, Quality

24 Assurance Branch. I just want to get through one little

25 thing first. I want to introduce Maricarmen Crespo.

1 She’s the Airy Engineer of the Antilles Office. So, 2 basically, she’s the Construction Lead for all of these

3 projects currently in Puerto Rico. She’s quietly sitting

4 back there, smiling, as usual. And I’m old, so I have to

5 put these glasses on because I can’t read my own notes.

6 So, the basic gest of the construction information

7 that I’m going to cover. I’m going to go through the

8 quality control class that’s required for the contractors

9 to have the certifications. I’ll go through some QA

10 testing, and I’ll talk a little bit about GMCR reports, 11 and then at that point in time, I’ll turn the podium over

12 to Mike Weilputz, from our Center of Expertise, and he’ll

13 actually explain a lot more about QA testing, or about

14 quality testing, QA and QC testing, and how you get

15 certified.

16 So, first we’re going to talk about the Quality

17 Control Management clause. So, the CQM-C certification is

18 a requirement. So, every contract will be required to

19 have, every CQM-C or quality control person you have on

20 your contract will be required to be certified. The only

21 way to get certified is you have to take one of our

22 classes.

23 I want to give you some examples of our classes. So, 24 I’m going to go through a couple of quick notes real

25 quick, and then I’ll give you the details on where and

1 when you can find those classes, and then some alternate

2 options, other than the ones I, personally, teach, or that

3 my district personally teaches.

4 So, basically, the CQM-C certification is required by

5 specification in your contract and it will be L145. The

6 reason you see X-X there is because contracts it could be

7 L1 or L4. We have multiple kinds of contracts but it will

8 be an L145 specification requirement of your contract.

9 The CQM-C class is offered in Florida at the

10 University of North Florida monthly, and it’s done four

11 times a year by the Army Corps, and eight times a year by

12 NAVFAC. Both certifications, you can take either class, 13 the certifications are good, they cross over. The

14 University of North Florida is located in Jacksonville.

15 They have a very nice website. I’ll give you the links to

16 it in a few moments.

17 Just some information about the CQM-C Program. In

18 2021, headquarters completely updated all of the program.

19 So, we have a brand new book and all new information, or

20 updated information, I wouldn’t call it new, because

21 quality control has been around for a little while, and

22 it’s very, very similar, we just updated our processes.

23 How CQM-C is mostly handled? In Jacksonville

24 District, is that it’s run through the University of North

25 Florida. So, you’ll go to their website, you’ll sign up

1 for it, and then the classes are facilitated or taught by

2 government employees, because that’s required by

3 regulation. I’ll give you an example, that we’ve been

4 teaching a class in this building, actually, for the last

5 two days. And then on Thursday and Friday for some Puerto

6 Rican entities, it’s their class, but we provide the

7 instructors for them. I’ll give you a little bit more

8 details on that in a second.

9 The certification that you get from, at the end of

10 our two-day class is good for five years. At that point

11 in time, you have to get recertified. There was a

12 requirement for many years that we were not allowed to do

13 the class online, but due to COVID, we kind of worked some

14 glitches out of that system, and we’ve worked a virtual

15 process. So, basically, what’s going to happen is that in

16 the future, we will offer, probably in Jacksonville, we’ll

17 probably offer eight to ten classes in the classroom, and

18 then we’ll do two virtual classes a year. And the virtual

19 classes, one will be done by the Army Corps and one will

20 be done by NAVFAC.

21 The reason we’re going to do those virtual classes is

22 because the people that are getting recertified, they

23 don’t necessarily need to come and sit in the classroom

24 again and go through the whole long process of being

25 certified. So, we teach a one-day online or virtual class

1 that’s instructor lead. So, that’s how we can do it, 2 because by regulation, it cannot be a self-paced on line

3 class. So, we will teach it virtually. Actually, 4 thankfully to COVID, we worked out all the processor that

5 noon and it works really well now. The other thing is

6 that most of the universities or the colleges, even the

7 ‘Colegio de Ingenieros’ will offer the Continuing

8 Education credits for the class.

9 Alright. I’ll go to the next slide and I’ll show you

10 the schedule for the University of North Florida. But

11 generally speaking, the one thing that I wanted to just

12 throw out there was, generally I was, Maricarmen will work

13 out at least once a year, when we will teach a class here

14 in Puerto Rico. So, if you’re interested in classes in

15 Puerto Rico, you can contact me, or probably contact

16 Maricarmen’s office, and find out when we may do the next

17 one. So, because we’re doing it this week, it will

18 probably be six or eight months before we do another one, 19 but otherwise, you know, you can take it from the

20 University of North Florida.

21 So... Oops! Sorry, wrong way. So, basically, the

22 website you see above is the link to the UNF website for

23 this class. The course is taught by the Continuing

24 Education Program or is facilitated by the Continuing

25 Education Program at the University of North Florida. If

1 you can’t write that link down, or want to take a picture

2 of the screen so you can remember it. If you Google UNF

3 CQM-C class, you’ll find their website, it’s pretty simple

4 to find. And this is just to show you how our schedule

5 works. Once a month, it’s usually the second week of

6 every month on Tuesday and Wednesday, unless there’s a

7 holiday.

8 As I told you before, the validation is good for five

9 years. After that, you must retake the class again. And

10 I think that was all from my notes from this slide. If

11 anybody else wants to take a picture, I didn’t want to

12 skip it until you were done. Okay.

13 So, the next thing I want to talk about was the

14 Geotechnical Completion Report. The Geotechnical

15 Completion Report Materials, I’m sorry, the Geotechnical

16 Materials Construction Report, I’m sorry, it’s a permanent

17 record of our construction. Right? It’s a requirement by

18 regulation for all megaprojects or very large projects, 19 there’s a lot of regulations as to why this particular

20 program meets the requirements for them, but just know

21 that every single project in the Supplemental Program will

22 be required to write a GMCR report.

23 This report is actually written by the government and

24 put in a permanent record at the end of a project. The

25 reason I’m pointing this out to you, and the contractors, 1 and suppliers, and testing labs is that the majority of

2 the information that is required in that report will be

3 gathered by the contractors and the testing labs. So, 4 there’s going to be a specification in everyone of your

5 contracts that will be O145OA. And in that, there will be

6 a very detailed requirement for you to gather data and

7 submit it to the government for the running of these

8 reports. And so, the reason that I put this on here was

9 to make sure that you all understood that it’s a very, 10 very detailed and cumbersome amount of information that

11 has to be gathered and submitted to us in a certain

12 format. Make sure when you’re bidding these projects that

13 you read that specification requirement, because there

14 will be a significant amount of cost to it. So, make sure

15 that you understand those requirements when you bid a

16 project.

17 Additionally, there’s going to be an increase in

18 as-built drawing coverage. So, you know, we all like to

19 see you doing a great job of doing as-built storing and at

20…