Posted June 10, 2010

Trierweiler Presents Paper at WEDA 30th & 41st TAMU Dredging Seminar

Dana Trierweiler, P.E.

Dana Trierweiler, P.E., Executive Vice-President of Infrastructure Alternatives, Inc., presented his paper, “Slowing the Swelling Seas: An In-Depth Look at the Geotextiles Installed in the Grand Isle, LA Hurricane Rehabilitation Project,” at the 30th Annual Western Hemisphere Dredging Conference and Texas A&M 41st Annual Dredging Seminar.  The conference was held at the RIO Mar Wyndham Resort and Spa in San Juan, Puerto Rico, June 6 – 9, 2010.

Dana’s paper is a case study of the Grand Isle Hurricanes Ike & Gustav Rehabilitation Project, which was performed in Grand Isle, Louisiana during 2009.  Infrastructure Alternatives installed 30,100 lineal feet of geotextile tubes over the course of the project, which involved using geotextile tubes filled with dredged sand slurry to create an artificial dune structure.  The geotextile tube dune is designed to limit erosion of the beach during a storm event by absorbing the forward momentum of the surf and holding the sand that makes up the dune in place, within the geotextile fabric skin of the tubes.

• See photos and a complete description of the Grand Isle project
• Read “Slowing the Swelling Seas: An In-Depth Look at the Geotextiles Installed in the Grand Isle, LA Hurricane Rehabilitation Project,” by Dana Trierweiler, P.E.
• See Dana's presentation (PDF)
• E-mail Dana Trierweiler, P.E.

Posted Oct. 27, 2009

Operations Specialist Jeffrey Wunrow Named WWOA Operator of the Year

Congratulations to Mr. Jeffrey Wunrow, Wisconsin Water Operators' Association (WWOA) Operator of the Year for the North Central District!  Jeff has been an operator at the Springbrook Wastewater Treatment Plant in Antigo, Wisconsin for the past 17 years and a member of the Infrastructure Alternatives team since 2002. 

Jeff received the Operator of the Year award at a ceremony in Green Bay, Wisconsin on Oct. 8, 2009, and said he was “totally taken off guard,” when he heard his name called.  Those who work with Jeff were not surprised to learn he had received such an honor, however.  Infrastructure Alternatives’ President & CEO Bill Cretens commented, “Jeff should be very proud of this award.  He deserves it.  We appreciate Jeff’s professionalism and dedication to the wastewater field.  This award reflects positively on Jeff and our Antigo staff, as well the entire company.”

Jeff says he is proud of the award, adding, “I have a lot of friends in the field.  This is a great honor.”  He says he would recommend the field of wastewater treatment to someone looking for a worthwhile career and offers the following advice to operators just starting out in the field, “Try to work in as many different areas as you can.”  This advice reflects on what may be Jeff’s greatest strength as an operator – his understanding of all aspects of wastewater treatment, from mechanical to biological and chemical.  He says, “It’s a good feeling when everything is running right." 

Infrastructure Alternatives is extremely proud of Jeff and all of our water and wastewater treatment staff, whose outstanding work in the field of wastewater treatment is a credit to the communities we serve.  Kent Trierweiler, Infrastructure Alternatives' Vice President for Contract Operations, Engineering & Technical Services, said, "Jeff has always been an integral part of the IAI operations team in Antigo, essentially responsible for the overall plant maintenance and operability at the wastewater treatment plant.  It is exciting to see Jeff get recognized by the State of Wisconsin as one of the best in this field.  Congratulations to all in Antigo for your ongoing excellence in water and wastewater utility operations."

Operations Specialist Jeffrey Wunrow

 Jeff resides in Antigo, Wisconsin and has two children, Jeffrey, Jr. and Megan.

Posted Aug. 14, 2009

Grand Isle Hurricane Protection Project Featured in ENR.com Video Story

Grand Isle, Jefferson Parish, Louisiana

“Tubin’ on the Isle,” a video story posted on ENR.com, the web site of Engineering News Review, features Infrastructure Alternatives’ latest beach stabilization project and includes an interview with IAI’s Site Superintendent, Larry Leach.  The Grand Isle and Vicinity Hurricane Protection Project is underway along the Gulf coast of southern Jefferson Parish, Louisiana and involves beach stabilization using Geotube® (geotextile tube) containers. 

Infrastructure Alternatives crews will install about 30,000 lineal feet of Geotube® containers (geotextile tubes) over the course of the project.  The Geotube® containers (geotextile tubes) will be filled with sand and then a sand cover will be placed over them, to create a large dune.  The filled Geotube® containers (geotextile tubes) at the core of the dune will reduce erosion of the beach during storms, as they are designed to stay in place even if surging seawater washes away the sand covering them.

The Grand Isle project has many unique features, one of which is the application of a special Polyurea coating that strengthens the fabric of the Geotube® containers (geotextile tubes) and makes them less vulnerable to punctures and damage from UV rays.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New Orleans District, is financing this project, which is one of the first Corps projects to utilize Polyurea coated Geotube® containers (geotextile tubes).  More information and photos of the site can be viewed on the Corps’ Grand Isle Hurricane Protection Project web page.

To learn more about Geotube® containers (geotextile tubes) and shoreline protection, please visit our Shoreline Protection page.

The Grand Isle Hurricane Protection Project is also being featured on the Weather Channel's web site.  Click here to see video.

• See “Tubin’ on the Isle” video on ENR.com
• See photos and learn more about Infrastructure Alternatives' work on the Grand Isle Hurricane Protection Project
• See USACE New Orleans District's Grand Isle project web page
• E-mail Dana Trierweiler, P.E., to learn more about stabilizing shorelines with Geotube® containers (geotextile tubes)

Posted Mar. 3, 2009

Bill Cretens

William Cretens, President and CEO of Infrastructure Alternatives, Inc., has recently had two technical papers published.  The papers each present a case study of the Ashtabula River Remediation project, in which the geotextile tube (Geotube®) dewatering process was used to dispose of hydraulically dredged contaminated river sediment.  The two papers were originally presented at national conferences in February 2009.

Bill presented his paper, Ashtabula River Remediation Combines Contaminated Sediment Removal with Navigational Dredging with co-author Paul Olander of J.F. Brennan Company at the Fifth International Conference on Remediation of Contaminated Sediments in Jacksonville, Florida on Feb. 4, 2009.  (Mark Binsfeld of J.F. Brennan Company also co-authored the paper.)  This paper highlights Phase II of the Ashtabula River Remediation project, which removed contaminated sediment from the Ashtabula River to restore depth in the federally-authorized navigation channel and was published in the conference proceedings.

Bill’s second paper about the project, Geotextile Tube Dewatering Technology Utilized on Massive Scale in Ashtabula River Remediation was presented at the GeoSynthetics 2009 conference in Salt Lake City, Utah on Feb. 26, 2009 and was published in the conference proceedings.  This paper focuses on the challenges of dewatering more than 600,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediments in geotextile tubes (Geotube® containers) and how the remediation team accomplished this task successfully.

Related links:

• Ashtabula River Remediation Combines Contaminated Sediment Removal with Navigational Dredging (.pdf file)
• Geotextile Tube Dewatering Technology Utilized on Massive Scale in Ashtabula River Remediation (.pdf file)
• See photos and description of the Ashtabula River Remediation Project
• E-mail Bill Cretens

Posted Feb. 24, 2009

7888 Childsdale

Infrastructure Alternatives, Inc. has recently moved into a new corporate headquarters building, located at 7888 Childsdale Avenue in Rockford, Michigan.  The new building includes increased office space, larger conference room, warehouse for equipment maintenance and storage and a separate laboratory/testing area.  An open house was held to welcome employees, clients and business partners into our new corporate home in October 2008.

• Click here to see a video with photos of the building's construction and open house (.wmv file)
• Click here to see photos of the building's construction and open house (.pdf file)

Posted Feb. 5, 2009

NASA Wallops Flight Facility Geotube® Shoreline Stabilization Project

“Resolving the Conflict When New Ideas Hit Tight Deadlines,” an article by Angelle Bergeron, posted on ENR.com (Engineering News Review) on Feb. 4, 2009 features a photo from Infrastructure Alternatives’ NASA Wallops Flight Facility Emergency Shoreline Stabilization Project.  The article discusses how new technologies are being evaluated in preparation for bringing the Greater New Orleans Hurricane and Storm Damage Risk Reduction System up to 100-year flood level by 2011, and mentions the use of Geotube® (geotextile tube) containers filled with sand (as utilized in the NASA Wallops Flight Facility project) as one of the technologies being considered by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers New Orleans District.

Related links:

• View PDF of ENR.com article 
• NASA Wallops Flight Facility Emergency Shoreline Stabilization Project photos & description
• USACE New Orleans District home page
• E-mail Dana Trierweiler, P.E., to learn more about stabilizing shorelines with Geotube® containers

Posted Feb. 4, 2009

John Rydbeck

Infrastructure Alternatives is proud to support John and his continuing work  as Co-Chair of the Safe Water in Ecuador committee, as the committee endeavors to provide a ready, sustainable supply of safe drinking water to rural communities in this developing country.   

According to the World Health Organization’s web site, “Lack of safe water, sanitation and hygiene remains one of the world’s most urgent health issues.”  Infrastructure Alternatives commends our own staff of water and wastewater treatment professionals and all their colleagues around the world for the life-saving work they do each day.

By John Rydbeck, Operations Manager

For the past couple of years I have been able to be a part of the Michigan Section American Water Works Association (AWWA) committee, Safe Water in Ecuador.  Essentially this is the same committee that has been operating for many years under the name Water for People and is affiliated with the national AWWA Water for People program.  Safe Water in Ecuador raises funds for water projects in Ecuador, as well as takes a travel group to Ecuador every year to visit the sites of past, present and future water projects in rural communities there. 

In Jan. 2008, I had the opportunity to join a travel group for my first visit to Ecuador.  We visited a community called Sul-Sul, whose water system was fully placed in operation in Dec. 2007.  The community thanked us (as representatives of those that have raised funds for materials) with ponchos, satchels and various gifts.  Their water system is very simple, with a 220 volt well cistern pumping station transferring untreated groundwater to a 5,000 gallon concrete reservoir.  The distribution system was even simpler, comprising of a simple outside spigot.  However, the years they had waited for the convenience of water at their home was evidenced by their many speeches, hugs and tears. 

Most exciting was visiting communities with water projects that have been in continued service for seven or eight years.  It was obvious to me that the success of the Safe Water in Ecuador program depends largely on the involvement of the individual communities that are served.  Prior to the first pipe being purchased, each community is required to have 100% involvement.  Each citizen must agree to provide necessary labor, have a latrine at their home, purchase an individual water meter and the communities must establish a Water Board, which charges each household for the water they use. 

In return, organizations such as Safe Water in Ecuador raise funds for the materials required in the project.  Engineering, planning and oversight are provided by a Christian mission organization called HCJB, which already has an established presence in Ecuador.  HCJB has now been advancing their community development program to include personal hygiene, a natural compliment to now having readily available clean water. 

Later, as we traveled back from another village, we flew over the jungle and mountains in a small plane.  From the air, I saw so many communities, peppering the rivers, mountains and valleys of rural Ecuador.  The quest of providing a safe and reliable drinking water system to all of these communities seems daunting enough, and almost seems impossible when you add all of the similarly desperate communities around in the world.  However, making a difference for these communities just comes down to everyone doing their part: the men and women in the communities, hand-digging trenches; the non-profit organizations, providing technical and engineering oversight; and the people willing to donate funds to purchase pipe and pumps. 

What makes the donation of everyone’s energy, time and financial resources worthwhile are the hopeful smiles of the people who can have a greater future because they know have access to this vital resource: safe, clean water. 

Related links:

• Safe Water in Ecuador
• AWWA - Michigan Section
• Water for People
• HCJB
• World Health Organization (Water Sanitation and Health page)
• E-mail John Rydbeck

Posted Jan. 23, 2009

Bill Cretens

William Cretens, President and CEO of Infrastructure Alternatives, Inc., is scheduled to present two technical papers at two separate national conferences in the month of February. 

Bill will first present the paper, “Ashtabula River Remediation Combines Contaminated Sediment Removal with Navigational Dredging,” with co-author Paul Olander of J.F. Brennan Company at the Fifth International Conference on Remediation of Contaminated Sediments.  (Mark Binsfeld of J.F. Brennan Company also co-authored the paper.)  The paper highlights Phase II of the Ashtabula River Remediation project, which removed contaminated sediment from the Ashtabula River to restore depth in the federally-authorized navigation channel.  The Fifth International Conference on Remediation of Contaminated Sediments will be held in Jacksonville, Florida, February 2 – 5.

Bill will present a second paper about the Ashtabula River Remediation project at the GeoSynthetics 2009 conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, to be held February 25 – 27.  Bill’s paper, titled, “Geotextile Tube Dewatering Technology Utilized on Massive Scale in Ashtabula River Remediation,” focuses on the challenges of dewatering more than 600,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediments in geotextile tubes and how the remediation team accomplished this task successfully.

Related links:

• Ashtabula River Remediation project photos & description
• Fifth International Conference on Remediation of Contaminated Sediments web site
• E-mail Bill Cretens