Underground construction specialist Treviicos, headquartered in Charlestown, MA, is hard at work on the Southeast Louisiana (SELA) drainage program, a multi-year initiative designed to prevent flood damage in the City of New Orleans and its’ surroundings. The SELA project entails construction of concrete-covered canals along major streets such as Jefferson Avenue and Prytania Street in Orleans and Jefferson Parishes, allowing the streets to sustain major rainstorms and hurricanes and playing an important role in preventing future destruction such as the city experienced in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Treviicos’ work involves improving soil conditions along the streets to provide support for the concrete canals. Treviicos is replacing the soil between and below two parallel lines of sheet piles along the streets with a soil-cement mass to eliminate under-seepage and create a bottom plug. Improving the streets’ soil is also allowing the general contractor to work in a dry and stable environment for subsequent operations, and saves time and money by requiring just one level of bracing as opposed to traditional retaining systems that require at least two levels of bracing for similar excavation depths. The following are photographs of Treviicos at work at SELA:

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