Engineering Inc. - September/October 2003 - 6

N E WS & N OT E S New EPA Mandate Means Historic Engineering Project to
Water Security Upgrades Stop Louisiana from Sinking T T wo thousand square
miles wo in three municipal water to meet Homeland Security possibility of
a major economic of southern Louisiana and wastewater systems
requirements. disaster. coastland vanished in the serving the 100 largest
U.S. ACEC has been working with In response, Louisiana is pol- last
two-thirds of the 20th metropolitan areas plan on the Department of
Homeland ishing a $14 billion proposal to century the equivalent of
contracting with engineering Security through The Infrastruc- present to
Congress next year, a losing Delaware, Baltimore, and firms to assist in
projects related ture Security Partnership TISP blueprint to halt the
disappear- Washington, D.C. The land is to Homeland Security, a new to
promote funding and guide- ance of the world's seventh- gone, drowned by
the survey shows. lines necessary for meeting largest delta. In one of the
most encroaching saltwater of the The ZweigWhite survey ana- water security
needs. ambitious engineering projects Gulf of Mexico. lyzed the security
needs of and The Environmental Protec- in U.S. history, a gargantuan Each
year, 25 to 30 square potential market for municipal tion Agency has
required every network of obstructions would miles of marsh and dry ground
water supply systems, which community water system servic- keep saltwater
out of the marsh- sink into the gulf in effect, a have been charged with
reduc- ing more than 3,300 people to land, rebuild and reinforce bar-
football field every half-hour. ing vulnerability to potential conduct a
vulnerability assess- rier islands, and divert millions And according to
recent projec- sabotage by terrorists. ment and prepare an emergency of
tons of fresh water and sedi- tions, an additional 700 to 900 The survey
shows that 65 per- response plan within six months ment from the
Mississippi River square miles will be swamped by cent of the largest
water and of the assessment. Most of those to marshes at risk. 2050 unless
an engineering wastewater systems in the coun- assessments are due by Dec.
31, Louisiana's sinking coast has effort of epic proportions is try plan
to use engineering firms 2003. endangered the single greatest undertaken
to contain the loss. source of shrimp, oysters, and Twenty-five Percent of
U.S. Over the past several years, as other seafood outside Alaska,
satellite imagery and computer along with major supplies of oil Bridges
Deficient projections have driven home and natural gas and the only the
point, the state's bankers, oil deep-sea offloading terminal for M ore
than a quarter of all executives, engineers, and gov- half the bridges in
Massachu- supertankers in the continental U.S. highway bridges are ernor
have awakened to the setts and Rhode Island. United States. considered
deficient, a Failure to repair aging bridges high number but a marked can
have deadly consequences. improvement after a decade In Waynesboro, Miss.,
three of increased government people died when a 100-year- spending,
according to a new old bridge collapsed in Novem- study by the Federal
Highway ber 2002. A replacement bridge Administration. was being built
nearby at the Findings show that the num- time. ber of bridges in need of
repair, The drop in the number of unable to adequately handle deficient
bridges coincided with traffic loads, or failing to meet increased funding
from the safety standards declined 18 Transportation Equity Act of percent,
from 199,090 in 1992 the 21st Century TEA-21 , to 163,010. The 163,010
total which earmarked $36.5 billion represents about 28 percent of for
repairs over the past all bridges in the United States. decade more than
double the The number of deficient $15.3 billion allocated during bridges
increased in nine states, the previous decade. Congress is plus the
District of Columbia now preparing to renew the A P / WIDE WORLD PHOTOS
and Puerto Rico. Sixty-eight TEA-21 legislation, which percent of the
bridges in the expires Sept. 30, 2003. ACEC is working to ensure increased
District of Columbia are defi- funding and timely passage of cient the
highest percentage the infrastructure legislation. in the nation as are
more than 6 ENGINEERING INC. S e p t e m b e r l October 2003
Engineering Inc. - September/October 2003

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