Corpstruction

Park Ranger Joshua Springer of the Lake Eufaula Project Office of the Tulsa District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, nearly drowned when he was four years old. If it weren’t for the quick thinking of his older sisters, Springer might have died in his family’s swimming pool at their home in Siloam Springs, Arkansas. Nearly two decades removed from the near-drowning experience, Springer remaines comm...

By the time the first shovels break ground on a new civil works or military construction venture, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has already invested thousands of hours into studying, planning, designing and contracting the project. Kalli Egan, the regional acquisition program manager at Southwestern Division, focuses on strategies and technical integration. She works with districts to improve e...

Brittany Cranor is a structural engineer at the Dam Safety Production Center, Southwestern Division, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The DSPC is co-located with the Tulsa District. Cranor talked to Corpstruction about why she chose to work for the Corps of Engineers after a couple of years in the private sector and how mentoring has benefited her career decisions.

Throughout written history, water has been a vital resource for requirement for the growth of cities. For Nathan Westrup and Richard Rockel of the Kansas Water Office, water supply is a primary concern. The questions that keep them up at night revolve around How the "Sunflower State" will meet the water supply needs of residents and industry.

Anthony Semento is the Chief of the Regional Contingency Operations and Disaster Response for the Southwestern Division located in Dallas, Texas. When people think of disaster response, they often think about the Federal Emergency Management Agency but what they might not realize is that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is often tasked by FEMA to execute disaster response activities. Managing disa...

February 20-26 is Engineers Week and we interviewed some of our engineers to find out why they decided to come work for the Corps of Engineers. Justin Cox of the Tulsa District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers worked as an engineer in the commercial sector fo years before coming to the district. Justin is from Haskell, Oklahoma. He is a graduate of Oklahoma State University. We spoke with Justin abou...

Engineers Week is Feb. 20-26 and for the Corpstruction Podcast we are sharing our interviews with USACE engineers to learn more about who they are. Jeff Rickfelder is a cost engineer for the Tulsa District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Rickfelder grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan and attended Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. Rickfelder worked for the Nashville District before moving to T...

Ean Bonjour is an engineer assigned to the Tulsa District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Ean conducts inspeactions of Tulsa District's dams throughout the year so the district can address and remediate any discrepancies. Ean is a graduate of Oklahoma State University.

Russell Wyckoff talks about working as an engineer in the USACE. He works in the Dam Safety Production Center of Southwestern Division. Wyckoff grew up in Oklahoma, attended Oklahoma State University, and has been an engineer with USACE nearly 35 years.

Unless you live on a mountain top, you’re probably within a few miles of a levee. Communities in every state and the District of Columbia rely on levees for flood prevention and mitigation. Nearly two-thirds of Americans live in a county with at least one levee. Because flood risk reduction is in the federal interest, many miles of those levees are inspected and monitored by the U.S. Army Corps of...

Since its beginning at the Tulsa District in 2016, the Innovations Team has attracted employees who want to improve the business processes and experience with the Corps of Engineers. The program has grown from a Tulsa District initiative to a nationwide program with 22 Districts represented by more than 50 employees. Innovations Teams have partnerships with Southwestern Oklahoma State University i...

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recently updated its National Inventory of Dams database and website. The updated site features user-friendly tools and search capabilities as well as flood maps to enable communities to be prepared for emergencies. Rebecca Ragon, manages the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers’ National Inventory of Dams program. She joined us to talk about the updates and the NID progr...

Two Tulsa District civilians are supporting the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ newest district from Kuwait. Ron Goodeyon is serving as the Chief of Counsel and Eddie Mattioda is serving as the Chief of Resource Management at the Transatlantic Expeditionary District. The TED was established May 15 from Task Force Essayons Command and the Transatlantic Afghanistan District. Goodeyon provides legal ad...

The US Army Corps if Engineers is supporting states and local communities under a Federal Emergency Management Agency emergency response tasking.

An interview with Dr. Paul J. Tikalsky of Oklahoma State University. Dean of the College of Engineering Architecture and Technology.

You probably never think about this product but it’s nearly impossible to travel anywhere in modern-day United States without encountering it at some point in your journey. Whether you use personal, public, or private transportation the odds of you going anywhere without it are relatively low. Our host, Brannen Parrish, visited the Fears Laboratory at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma...

Blake Cannon of the Tulsa District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Real Estate Division visits to discuss available public land leases for agricultural and grazing purposes. Cannon also talks about the programs managed by the Real Estate Division at the district as well as the 1.8 million acres of public land the district is charged with managing. Approximately 60 percent of that land is out-granted...

Ranger Matt Sexton of the Lake Eufaula Project Office talks about being a park ranger at the largest lake in Oklahoma. Sexton is originally from North Carolina and moved to Oklahoma to work for the Tulsa District. Sexton talked to us about boat docks, recreation and working at his dream job.

Tulsa District engineer, Levi Rundell is working on the Eufaula Dam bridge replacement project. Rundell talks about the Ultra High Performance Concrete being used to practically "weld" concrete panels together. When completed the Eufaula Dam bridge will have the highest concentration of Ultra High Performance Concrete in the State of Oklahoma. Rundell also provided an update about expected reopeni...

Christopher Strunk of the Tulsa District recently returned from a deployment in support of the rescue and recovery mission at the Champlain Tower collapse in Surfside, Florida. Strunk is the Chief of Military and Interagency International Services, Design and a former Senior Structural Engineer and Subject Matter Expert, Tulsa District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. He oversees Interagency and Int...

In November 2018, a tornado struck Elk Creek and Snake Creek Campgrounds on Tenkiller Lake in Oklahoma. The tornado caused considerable damage. Less than two months earlier, Dennis Covey had taken over as the new lake manager for Tenkiller which includes more than 11,000 surface acres of water and much more land. In 2019, the Tenkiller Lake Office found itself in the middle of a flood fight that l...

WELCOME TO CORPSTRUCTION, A PODCAST ABOUT THE MISISONS OF THE TULSA DISTRICT U S ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS. IT’S FRIDAY, JULY SIXTENTH TWENTY TWENTY ONE AND THIS IS THE WEEKEND ROUNDUP WHERE WE GO OVER THE MAJOR NEWS EVENTS AND ISSUES IN THE TULSA DISTRICT. LETS START WITH A TALK ABOUT THE BIRDS AND THE BEES. THE CORPS OF ENGINEERS IS TAKING ACTION TO COMBAT THE DECLINING POLLINATOR POPULATION AND T...

Interview with Dr. David Williams Tulsa District Chief of Hydrology and Hydraulics Engineering

Dr. David Williams, chief of Hydrology and Hydraulics Engineering Branch, Tulsa District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers talks about water releases during floods and the variety of missions his branch oversees. The Hydrologists, Engineers and Technicians in H&H, ensure reservoir water managers know how much water is entering the reservoir, how much water is downstream of the dams and how much water...

Adam Smith, Jeffrey Stevens and Daniel Morales of the Dam Safety Production Center, Southwestern Division, sat down with Brannen Parrish of the Tulsa District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to discuss the Veterans Administration Hospital project at Muskogee, Oklahoma. The Dam Safety Production Center works out of the Tulsa District but is assigned to the Southwestern Division, U.S. Army Corps of En...