Risky Business -- Army Corps of Engineers Louisville risk cadre receives top honors

By Carol LabashoskyMarch 12, 2015

Blakely Mountain Dam, Royal, Arkansas
(Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

So what is a Risk Cadre and what has the Louisville Risk Cadre been doing this last year that earned them such high praise?

After Hurricane Katrina, the Army Corps of Engineers made an effort to outreach and make risk-informed decisions ensuring that projects providing the most risk benefit for the American public would be assessed and prioritized to receive funds.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Risk Management Center (RMC) was formed to lead and direct this effort for USACE, by largely using risk analysis methods used by the Bureau of Reclamation. Risk is determined by the presence of a potential hazard, the probability of the hazard to lead to a breach, and the consequences that might occur to the downstream population at risk if a breach occurs. For example, a dam with many potential hazards but with zero population downstream might be considered a low risk, while a dam with few to no hazards might be considered a high risk if it is immediately upstream of city. A classification system of dams and levees assisted RMC personnel to determine how to prioritize efforts as they began to assist local USACE Districts with assessing the structures that posed the greatest risk to the public.

The RMC found themselves tasked with greater responsibilities and needed assistance from Districts to evaluate these risks. In 2011, the Louisville District formed a small cadre to provide support for this effort. Over the past 3.5 years, the group has been extremely successful at assessing the risks of high hazard dams and levees across the nation.

The Louisville District Cadre's have been involved all the way back to the beginning of the RMC in the development of the risk methodology used today to evaluate Dams in the USACE portfolio. A Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) was drafted between the LRL cadre and the RMC establishing the baseline LRL cadre teams. These base teams generally consist of a project manager, a geotechnical engineer who evaluates the integrity of the embankment and the potential for internal erosion failure modes, an economist who evaluates the potential downstream consequences if breach were to occur, a hydrologist/hydraulic engineer who determines the reoccurrence frequency and duration of various pool loadings at the structure and the extent of flooding from a breach, a geologist who determines the potential geologic hazards that could threaten the integrity of the structure and a structural engineer who evaluates the design and integrity of structural components.

The Louisville District has been granted flexibility to operate with greater freedom to focus and schedule multiple risk assessments simultaneously. The LRL team has approximately 25 members both full and part time, actively working on five or more risk assessments at any given time, according to Stephen Durrett. This flexibility and commitment of the LRL Cadres have enabled them to complete more risk assessment than any other risk cadre under contract with the RMC. "When a tough or difficult project needs to be accomplished, the RMC calls LRL. The team performing risk work has a great reputation. " according to Mr. Durrett, Louisville district deputy engineer.

At the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Risk Management Center (RMC) in Denver, Colorado, the Louisville Risk Cadre Engineer Rick Schultz, who attended the ceremony in Denver said, "Senior RMC management had many great things to say about the outstanding performance of the LRL group and all that the Cadre has accomplished in the past year."

The first ever Cadre-of-the-Year Award -- which was received by the Louisville District team -- is a watershed moment for the team, district, division and nationally. The award was recognized during the District's award ceremony for 2014. The LRL Risk Cadre Team members are:

Project manager:

Bonnie Jennings

Geotechnical Engineers:

Jonathan Best

Troy O'Neal

Nicholas Beckmann

Joseph Carnall

Chun-yi Kuo

Casey Cummins

William Puckett

Robert Wheeler

Adam Gohs

Structural Engineers:

Josh Corbett

Brett Heppermann

Matthew Watts

Raymond Smith

Shawn Kenney

Jonny Meyer

Geologists:

Richard Hockett

David Robison

Scott Kelly

Jacob Nienaber

Kenneth Henn

Hydraulic Engineers:

Adam Connelly

Derek Kinder

Ken Lamkin

Ed Stowasser (LRH)

Shelley Tule (LRE)

Mechanical Engineer Brian D. Smith

Economists: Alex Ryan, Nickolas Lutz