Engineering and Construction Expertise
Little Rock District has a proud history of providing communities, other federal agencies, organizations, and the military in our region and our nation with outstanding design and construction work.
We have worked for cities to assist with local flood reduction projects, with organizations to develop habitat improvement projects, with the military to develop projects that house, train, and improve the quality of life of our soldiers, sailors, and airmen.
Responsible Offices
Engineering and design work is handled out of the district's Engineering and Construction Division. This technical division is fully staffed with employees who are experienced in solving problems and developing designs that are environmentally friendly and consistently meet or exceed the customer's needs. Our engineering technicians, architects, civil, structural, cost, electrical, and hydraulic engineers as well as the support staff are really some of the best in the Corps.
Engineering and Construction Division can be reached at (501) 324-5567.
The district's Central Arkansas Area Office is responsible for overseeing all construction activities in the field except for civil Operations and Maintenance work. The office oversees military construction projects at the Pine Bluff Arsenal and Fort Chaffee project offices and the Air Force Base Resident Office as well as some civil works construction projects.
The Central Arkansas Area Office and the Air Force Base Resident Office are co-located at the Little Rock Air Force Base. The office can be reached at (501) 988-4153 or visit some of the project pages.
Design Branch
General Engineering Section provides civil engineering, architectural, structural, geotechnical and specification coordination for the District. Section personnel design and review designs of a wide range of civil and military projects including: buildings (such as child care centers, hangers, visitor centers...), drainage improvement, roads, levees, and airfields. Customers include: Little Rock District Operations, Little Rock Air Force Base, Pine Bluff Arsenal, Veteran's Administration, Army Reserve Centers, NCTR, and other Districts within the Southwestern Division.
Infrastructure Safety Section (ISS) is a multi-disciplined team of engineering technicians, geologists, geotechnical and structural engineers who are responsible for the integrity of dams, levees and bridges within Little Rock District so that they do not present unacceptable risks to the public, property and the environment. ISS also supports regional and national teams including Navigation Maintenance Assessments, Disaster Relief, Overseas Contingency Operations, Urban Search and Rescue, Risk Management Center Cadres, Dam and Bridge Safety for military installations.
Mechanical Electrical Engineering Section provides mechanical and electrical systems designs and engineering support to the District and external customers. Such work includes heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems, plumbing, hydraulic/pneumatic systems, machine design, fire detection and suppression, electrical power distribution (primary and secondary), lighting, security and data systems. This work is applied to variety of horizontal and vertical construction such as locks and dams throughout the district and associated parks, Army and Air Force military buildings such as dining halls, flight simulators and child development centers, as well as some medical facilities owned by the Veterans Administration. The section also provides mechanical and electrical expertise, as requested, for the evaluation and (if needed) improvements to Corps dams across the nation.
Design Branch can be reached at (501)324-5057.
Want to know what the Corps can do to help local communities? Visit our Planning and Environmental Office’s webpage.
Hydraulics & Technical Services Branch
HTS Branch is divided into three technical sections that provide oversight of their functional areas. Additionally, the Branch hosts the Program Support Team that prepares, defends, and executes the E&C Division budget. The program analysts annually manage funds across 18 Federal Appropriations including Operations & Maintenance; Investigations; Construction; O&M Army, Army Reserve, and Air Force; Military Construction-Army; Regulatory; and Flood Control & Costal Emergencies among others.
The Reservoir Control Section provides the daily, real-time water management for the District’s 12 multi-purpose reservoirs and 13 navigation locks & dams to meet the flood damage reduction and navigation missions. The section’s staff operates and maintains the Corps gages at these project sites, and installs new Data Collection Platforms (DCPs) at new gauging locations when needed. The section’s engineers provide real-time guidance to the Operations Project Manager’s staffs, prepare lake elevation forecasts and Arkansas River flow forecasts, monitor hydrometeorlogical events for impacts to District drainage basins, maintain the water supply accountability, monitor drought conditions, archive hydrologic data for use internally and externally for H&H studies, prepare water control manuals. During hydropower operations from spring through fall, the staff closely monitors dissolved oxygen levels in the tailwaters downstream of the White River lakes.
The H&H Section of the Little Rock District is responsible for maintaining navigation standards for the 308 miles of the McClellen-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System (MKARNS) within the District’s boundaries, for conducting water resource investigations supporting planning, design, operation & maintenance, and real estate civil works missions. Staff members advise district leaders and staff regarding H&H projects supporting the civil works mission and provide technical H&H engineering PDT members for District’s planning, design, construction, and operations of proposed and existing multi-million dollar, multi-purpose projects providing flood damage reduction, environmental restoration, hydropower generation, navigation, and recreation benefits to the region. The staff conducts studies funded by investigations (GI), construction (CG), and operations and maintenance (O&M) appropriations for flood plain management, dam safety, flood risk management, streambank protection, environmental restoration, and other areas of interest.
The Surveys Section of the Little Rock District is responsible for providing technical land surveying support to the District and serving as the Contracting Officers Representative for commercial surveying services contracts to meet the District’s surveying requirements for planning, design, operation & maintenance, real estate civil works missions. Services provided include ultra-precise structural behavior measurements (dam alignment), land and real estate (cadastral), engineering (design, construction, and site location), global positioning systems, flood plain management, geodetic (horizontal and vertical control), cartographic, topographic, and boundary monumentation surveys. The section’s staff also performs survey calculations, drafts, archives plats, resolves boundary disputes, researches its database of historical Government surveys, and enters survey data into the A significant service provided by the staff is providing historical Government survey data to other Federal Government agencies, state agencies, and private surveyors conducting work adjacent to USACE land and easements.
HTS Branch can be reached at (501)324-6231 for general inquiries, (501)324-6238 for real time water management inquiries, and (501) 324-5688 for surveying inquiries.