{"id":1592,"date":"2019-10-03T15:36:23","date_gmt":"2019-10-03T20:36:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aapaseaports.naymicrosite2.wpengine.com\/?p=1592"},"modified":"2020-03-26T10:53:14","modified_gmt":"2020-03-26T15:53:14","slug":"to-rehab-or-reconstruct-thats-the-question","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aapaseaports.com\/index.php\/2019\/10\/03\/to-rehab-or-reconstruct-thats-the-question\/","title":{"rendered":"To Rehab or Reconstruct, that\u2019s the Question"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By Donald Brinkman, Director of Engineering, Port of Lake Charles <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the Director of Engineering for the Port of Lake\nCharles, I spend a lot of my time contemplating the challenge of upgrading\naging infrastructure. I am not alone in this regard.  I know that my colleagues feel the same way\nand often worry about the best way to tackle these port challenges.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few years ago, at the port, we reconstructed an old\ndock that was built in the 1920s.  It\nserved its useful life and then some.  It\nwas designed and constructed to handle the backbone cargo of our port at the\ntime–grain and timber.  Although both\nare still staples at our port, our cargo mix has changed dramatically over the\nyears.  So, we went back to the drawing\nboard and designed a new modern berth and transit shed that could handle our\nexisting cargoes and could also accommodate new cargos that we can\u2019t define at\nthis time.  That resulted in a $25M\nproject.  Not a bad price tag for what we\nwere able to accomplish, however, when you look at doing this for 6 more docks,\nyour accountant begins asking, \u201cwhat new revenue are we going to create to fund\nthis infrastructure?\u201d  With this in mind,\nyou start looking at ways to cut costs such as rehabilitation vs reconstruction\nand try to find ways to reduce the bottom line \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To be honest, reconstruction is always easier. It\u2019s\neasier to define the work, easier to hire an engineer to design, easier to hire\na general contractor, easier to explain to your Executive Director and Board,\nand easier to budget.  However, it\nusually costs more than rehab.  The truth\nis rehab is different and certainly less tangible. Sometimes you can\u2019t even see\nthe improvement (because it\u2019s under the berth). \nIt\u2019s often an engineering specialty so not everyone is qualified to\ndesign and\/or construct rehab projects. \nThe pool of providers is small. \nIt\u2019s hard to define your scope and convey your project to the Executive\nDirector and Board in a way they can get their arms around.  Heck, sometimes it\u2019s difficult for you to get\nyour arms around even though you are the engineer.  Thus, the rehab option is often overlooked and\nnot embraced as a valid solution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thankfully this is an important issue that will be\naddressed at the upcoming AAPA Facilities Engineering Conference.  It is nice to know that you are not alone and\nthat there are other port engineers with the same concerns.  In fact, this year\u2019s conference, April 24-26\nin Jacksonville, Florida will provide the knowledge you need to turn the once\ndestined reconstruction project into a rehab project\u2026 saving time and money, while\nyielding the same desired outcome.  Mark\nyour calendars!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Donald Brinkman, Director of Engineering, Port of Lake Charles As the Director of Engineering for the Port of Lake Charles, I spend a lot of my time contemplating the challenge of upgrading aging infrastructure. I am not alone in this regard.  I know that my colleagues feel the same way and often worry about …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":1284,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aapaseaports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aapaseaports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aapaseaports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aapaseaports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aapaseaports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.aapaseaports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1592\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aapaseaports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aapaseaports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aapaseaports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aapaseaports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}