A decade in the past, the U.S. Military Corps of Engineers (USACE) put in demonstration wicket gates constructed from E-glass and vinyl ester resin in a sandwich panel building on the Illinois River, changing white oak timber gates. Since then, the USACE has ramped up its funding in composites for water navigation and flood administration constructions to satisfy new 100-year design life requirements.
In July 2024, the Military Corps issued an Engineering and Building Bulletin to its 37 Civil Works Districts, which oversee water useful resource initiatives, directing them to think about FRP within the design and building of hydraulic constructions in future budgets. And there are lots of them. Based mostly on earlier 50-year design life necessities, the USACE is on the cusp of changing 260 hydraulic constructions per 12 months that had been constructed between 1920 and 1975.
“The Engineering and Building Bulletin is a major sign to the districts that each one hydraulic metal constructions should be assessed for FRP functions once they witness substitute or life-extending upkeep,” says Robert Germann, PE, technical supervisor for the South Atlantic Division of the USACE. “That goes past our 200-plus locks and dams for navigation and contains our flood threat administration dams as nicely, which principally doubles the variety of parts.”
The Military Corps accomplished a handful of FRP initiatives in 2023, together with greater than 100 wicket gates for the Illinois Waterway, a system of rivers and canals that connects Lake Michigan to the Mississippi River. Final 12 months, it awarded seven contracts totaling almost $20 million at websites throughout the U.S., starting from bulkheads in Wilmington, N.C., to lock gate contact blocks in Seattle.
Canadian-based CMSI landed two of the seven Military Corps’ contracts by way of its U.S. subsidiary. The primary, awarded in Might 2024, is for eight raise gates on the W.P. Franklin Lock and Dam and 10 bulkheads on the Port Mayaca Lock and Dam, each within the Jacksonville District in Florida. The second, awarded in November 2024, is for 4 tainter valves on the Mississippi River in Illinois Metropolis, In poor health. All of the constructions might be constructed from E-glass and vinyl ester resin by way of vacuum-assisted resin switch molding.
“We pursued this work as a result of we love actually large, complicated functions,” says Shawn Beamish, CEO and founding father of CMSI. “Fiber-reinforced polymer is a unbelievable materials. Because the Military Corps has identified, it has 10-to-1 life value benefits on a 100-year life design. That offers it a aggressive benefit, significantly in waterways infrastructure.”
CMSI has begun manufacturing the 39 x 19-foot raise gates and 31 x 3½-foot bulkheads for the Jacksonville District at its South Carolina plant to satisfy an October 2025 supply date. Every of the constructions should fall inside 10% of the utmost weight requirement set forth by the Military Corps to accommodate the load bearing capability of the present lifting equipment on the lock and dams.
“There are lots of locations the place we all know we might enhance the design and make issues stiffer and lighter,” says Beamish. “However we’re working inside the constraints of the contract – and for good motive. The constructions should work in tandem with the lock and dams’ metal mechanical parts, they usually additionally require some stage of lifeless weight to carry them in place submerged in water.”
As CMSI builds its relationship with the Military Corps, Beamish is assured they are going to collaborate to proceed bettering hydraulic constructions. “The Corps is unbelievable,” he says. “They’ve nice inside technical experience that challenges our assumptions and designs. They really take the strategy that we’re a crew.”
Beamish is optimistic in regards to the waterway navigation market not only for his firm, however for all the composites trade. “There may be nice alternative proper now to use your self on this house,” he says.
CMSI first discovered in regards to the USACE’s wants within the Jacksonville District at a 2023 outreach occasion for ACMA members on the W.P. Franklin Lock and Dam. “It’s important that you just get your eyes on these initiatives, and also you perceive the complexities and variables at play in every of those distinctive constructions,” says Beamish.
Along with outreach occasions, the Military Corps additionally holds trade days a month or two earlier than it advertises a solicitation for a brand new mission.
“The aim of those conferences is to get enter from composites corporations prematurely,” says Eric Johnson, PE, technical supervisor for the hydraulic composite construction program at USACE’s Inland Navigation Design Middle. “We present corporations what we’re considering conceptually, after which fabricators can present perception. Perhaps they know one thing merely can’t be constructed or might be too costly in the event you construct it a sure means. It’s good suggestions for us.”
Equally, ACMA helps educate the Military Corps to foster stronger relationships with the composites trade. The affiliation facilitated three coaching packages in 2024 attended by 66 USACE design engineers and operations and upkeep workers. Curriculum for this system, which incorporates classroom instruction and hands-on coaching, covers FRP supplies, molding methods, inspection strategies, composite restore and extra. ACMA will provide three extra courses this 12 months.
“We try to develop the market,” says Johnson. “The demand aspect of the equation is rising, and to date, fabricators on the provision aspect have been in a position to meet our wants. However we want extra trade companions to stick with it.”
