GALVESTON, Texas (Oct. 7, 2013) -- The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Galveston District awarded a contract in the amount $1,172,000 to Inland Construction & Engineering Inc., -- a certified small disadvantaged business and HUBZone contractor -- to install impressed current cathodic protection systems at the Colorado River Locks in Matagorda, Texas.

"The work will help to control the corrosion of eight sector gates by connecting the metal gates to a more easily corroded sacrificial galvanic anode metal," said Operations Manager Eric Russek, with USACE Galveston District's Project Operations Branch. "An external low-voltage electrical system will be added to slow the corrosion of the sacrificial metal on these large structures, as the sacrificial metal alone can't deliver enough current to provide complete protection."

Cathodic protection systems are used to protect a wide range of metallic structures in various environments, and in some cases, prevents stress corrosion cracking.

According to Russek, work is expected to begin in November, with an estimated completion date of March 2014.

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The USACE Galveston District was established in 1880, as the first engineer district in Texas to oversee river and harbor improvements. The district is directly responsible for maintaining more than 1,000 miles of channel, including 250 miles of deep draft, and 750 miles of shallow draft, as well as the Colorado River Locks and Brazos River Floodgates.

To learn more about dredging on the Texas coast, view a four-minute video at http://bit.ly/KLZQBM.

For more news and information, visit the USACE Galveston District website at http://www.swg.usace.army.mil. Find us on Facebook, www.facebook.com/GalvestonDistrict or follow us on Twitter, www.twitter.com/USACEgalveston.