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Breaking News in the Project Management World
Saturday, April 26, 2008
PMI GNO 2008 "Project of the Year" Award Goes to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
During a special awards dinner on April 16, 2008, the Project Management Institute - Greater New Orleans Chapter (PMI GNO) presented its 2008 Project of the Year Award to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Mississippi Valley Division. The annual award, given to a PMI member or member organization, "recognizes the accomplishments of a project and the involved project team for superior performance and execution of exemplary project management." The Corps' New Orleans District is one of six districts of the Mississippi Valley Division.
The award was presented to the Corps for its Hurricane Katrina emergency response mission. The Corps was recognized for its Task Force Unwatering, Task Force Guardian and Louisiana Recovery Field Office (debris) missions.
Accepting the award on behalf of the Corps of Engineers was Michael Park, a Hurricane Protection System Program Manager in the Corps’ Task Force Hope office. Park, a New Orleans native, also served as director of the Corps’ Louisiana Recovery Field Office. Accepting the award on behalf of Graves-Evans Engineering, Inc. was Emily Graves. The award was presented to both by Alfred Cannon, who serves as past president on the PMI GNO’s board of directors.
(Photo: Emily Graves, Michael Park, Alfred Cannon)
“After careful review and consideration of several worthy entrants, we identified the Corps’ work as truly exemplary of the core competencies and principles that govern the project management profession,” Cannon said. He added, “This project fulfills PMI’s Envisioned Goal, that ‘Worldwide, organizations will embrace, value, and utilize project management and attribute their success to it!’”
Submitted by Graves - Evans Engineering, Inc. on behalf of the Mississippi Valley Division, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the award winning project included the recovery efforts from one of the largest natural disasters in US history. Total mission cost in Louisiana was $3.7 Billion, to repair and restore 220 miles of floodwalls and levees, remove 28.1 million cubic yards of debris (or a column 3.3 miles high on 1 acre of land), and mobilizing over 10,000 people over the 2 year effort. Although a huge and daunting effort, unwatering of the city was accomplished much faster than expected, 25% ahead of schedule; work on floodwalls and levees finished in 8 months instead of the estimated 10 years.
This project award was also a tribute to the 1,232 New Orleans District staff (including some PMI GNO Chapter members) of which 400 lost their homes and 600 more received significant damage; yet they came back to work quickly and their deployment of local knowledge resources at “site” critical tasks was critical to speedy project success. The Corps will now be eligible to compete for PMI’s international “Project of the Year” Award which will be presented at the 2008 PMI Global Congress—North America to be held in Denver, Colorado, USA in October.
The PMI Greater New Orleans Chapter (PMI GNO) is the regional branch of the global PMI organization dedicated to building awareness and advocacy for the project management profession—which intersects a variety of industries from construction to IT to engineering. PMI GNO advances and supports the Gulf South’s project managers—who are leading the region’s revitalization following the hurricanes of 2005. The President of the PMI GNO chapter for 2008 is Ana Boudreaux. More information can be found at www.pmigno.org.
Accepting the award on behalf of the Corps of Engineers was Michael Park, a Hurricane Protection System Program Manager in the Corps’ Task Force Hope office. Park, a New Orleans native, also served as director of the Corps’ Louisiana Recovery Field Office. Accepting the award on behalf of Graves-Evans Engineering, Inc. was Emily Graves. The award was presented to both by Alfred Cannon, who serves as past president on the PMI GNO’s board of directors.
(Photo: Emily Graves, Michael Park, Alfred Cannon)
“After careful review and consideration of several worthy entrants, we identified the Corps’ work as truly exemplary of the core competencies and principles that govern the project management profession,” Cannon said. He added, “This project fulfills PMI’s Envisioned Goal, that ‘Worldwide, organizations will embrace, value, and utilize project management and attribute their success to it!’”
Submitted by Graves - Evans Engineering, Inc. on behalf of the Mississippi Valley Division, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the award winning project included the recovery efforts from one of the largest natural disasters in US history. Total mission cost in Louisiana was $3.7 Billion, to repair and restore 220 miles of floodwalls and levees, remove 28.1 million cubic yards of debris (or a column 3.3 miles high on 1 acre of land), and mobilizing over 10,000 people over the 2 year effort. Although a huge and daunting effort, unwatering of the city was accomplished much faster than expected, 25% ahead of schedule; work on floodwalls and levees finished in 8 months instead of the estimated 10 years.
This project award was also a tribute to the 1,232 New Orleans District staff (including some PMI GNO Chapter members) of which 400 lost their homes and 600 more received significant damage; yet they came back to work quickly and their deployment of local knowledge resources at “site” critical tasks was critical to speedy project success. The Corps will now be eligible to compete for PMI’s international “Project of the Year” Award which will be presented at the 2008 PMI Global Congress—North America to be held in Denver, Colorado, USA in October.
