Mississippi River

Mississippi River O&M & EMP Program Contracts

Partnering Lesson:

  • Global Partnering charter standardized dispute resolution.
  • Multiple stakeholder needs handled by standard charter.

Project Description
There are multiple marine construction projects along 225 miles of the Upper Mississippi River from Guttenberg, Iowa, upstream to Minneapolis, Minnesota. The projects range from a small rockfill slope repair to a $4.1 million EMP project at a National Wildlife Refuge.

Project Challenges:

  • A limited number of contractors performed marine construction work within the St. Paul District boundaries.
  • As the volume of work increased, the number of Corps of Engineers and contractor personnel involved on these projects increased.
  • Varied project expectations from each of the three resident offices and different contractor project managers at each site.

Issue 1:
Implementing the overall goals of establishing a safe working environment, producing a top quality product, and completing on schedule and within budget on each project required improvement in the areas of the submittal process, maintaining lines of communication, and issue resolution.

Development of a global partnering charter with J.F. Brennan, which included all individual contractor Project Managers and all three Resident Engineers and their staffs created consistency both for the contractor and the Corps construction staff. A structured conflict resolution process was developed for all projects, and regular partnering reviews were held during the life of each project.

Issue 1:
Most of the river projects involved multiple stakeholders with different objectives and conflicting goals. By involving all stakeholders at the earliest possible time, potential conflicts are identified and addressed. Partnering sessions are held at the beginning of each project. At the start of each new project, the global charter goals and objectives are reviewed and revised as necessary to match the needs of the stakeholders.

Benefits of Partnering:

  • No claims.
  • Projects completed on or ahead of schedule.
  • High customer satisfaction with completed project.

Stakeholders:
Prime Contractor, State DNR, USFWS, Local Sponsors, Environmental Groups, Corps, Navigation Industry, Public.