IHNC GIWW Sector Gate & Monolith/Lake Borgne Surge Barrier
Year Galvanized: 2011
Galvanizers: Valmont Coatings, Birmingham Galvanizing
Summary: In August of 2005, New Orleans and its surrounding areas experienced one of the five deadliest hurricanes in history and the costliest natural disaster in history. The tragedy that we were all witness to as the storm surges collapsed a 4,000-foot-long section of floodwall, and flooded the city and surrounding areas leading to numerous deaths in the area. The US Army Corp of Engineers were assigned the task to build a barrier wall to protect the City of New Orleans and surrounding areas, and prevent a tragedy like this from ever occurring again. This project consists of a 1½-mile long flood wall and three floodgates, one of which is the sector gate across the 40-foot deep Gulf Intracoastal Waterway (GIWW). Alfab Inc. was chosen to build the barrier railing system that would be installed on top of the sector gate and monolith structure. The construction team knew that this railing would be in the constant salt water environment and have to endure the rigorous, corrosive conditions. The team looked at several ideas to protect this barrier railing including stainless steel, but decided on hot-dip galvanizing (HDG) after researching the lower initial cost, life cycle cost savings, and corrosion protection it could provide.