A closer look
City of New Orleans Department of Public Works G.E.C. Inc. (Prime Contractor) Agriculture Street Landfill Redevelopment Resident Inspection
New Orleans, LA
Owner
City of New Orleans Department of Public Works G.E.C. Inc. (Prime Contractor)
Completion Date for Professional Services
Ongoing
Completion Date for Construction
Ongoing
Project Disciplines
- Contract Administration
- Construction Phase Services
- Planning and Assessments
- Project Management
- Quality Assurance
- Quality Control
- Resident Inspection
General Scope of Project
The Mayor’s Office of Resilience and Sustainability works with city departments and agencies to advise on the strategic pursuit of comprehensive resilience priorities across environmental, social, economic, and infrastructural improvement goals. The Agriculture Street Landfill (ASL) is a soon to be City-owned property upon which the City is planning to build the City’s first Community Solar Park.
The ASL opened in 1909 on 95 acres of undeveloped swampland to dispose of the City of New Orleans’ municipal solid waste. Through a mix of buried heavy metals, trash fires, and chemical spraying, the landfill was contaminated with more than 152 toxic and hazardous materials. ASL was closed in 1966 and then redeveloped by CNO and Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO) in the 1970’s into the Gordon Plaza and Press Park single family residential neighborhoods, an affordable housing community for the elderly, and the former Robert R. Moton Elementary School. Following a sewerage leak in 1993, complaints from numerous residents and activists lead to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) testing and designating the Gordon Plaza Subdivision as a Superfund Site in 1994.
CNO and EPA has invested in remediation actions at the site; and defended itself against class action lawsuits brought against the CNO, HANO, Orleans Parish School Board (OPSB), and liability insurers to recover for negligence in converting the municipal landfill into a residential area. In 2008 a Consent Decree with the EPA outlined CNO’s responsibility to maintain the site in perpetuity. CNO is currently acquiring property a top the former landfill, including some of the single-family homes in the Gordon Plaza Subdivision.
As a sub-consultant to GEC, Wingate Engineers has been hired to perform all Resident Inspection Services as well as some Construction Management and Contract Administration Services to manage and monitor the demolition contractor for the following sites:
- Oversight and Inspection of nearly 70 Residential Properties located within the Gordon Plaza site in the historic Desire Neighborhood
- Oversight and Inspection of the demolition of Moton Elementary School in the historic Desire Neighborhood.
- Oversight and Inspection of a soil management plan to guide the City’s selected construction contractor as the properties in the Gordon Plaza neighborhood and directly atop the Agriculture Street Landfill are demolished and nine properties undergo soil excavation to 2’ to remove lead contaminated soil.
Oversight and Inspection of a Tree Maintenance Plan designed to protect the Landfill Cap and eliminate any trees growing out of the landfill. The plan should ensure the cap maintains its integrity and future growth is stunted for the duration of the remedy.
