Third Brandon Road Contract Awarded
The Detroit Engineer district announced May 21 that it has awarded a design services contract for the Brandon Road Interbasin Project in Illinois.
The district awarded Black & Veatch-Stantec BRIP JV of Overland Park, Kan., the contract on April 23 for architect, engineering and analytical services. The Single Award Task Order Contract is valued at up to $85 million for the base and all options. The project is located at Brandon Road Lock and Dam at Mile 286 on the Des Plaines River in Joliet, Ill.
The Brandon Road Interbasin Project’s goal is to prevent the passage of invasive Asian carp from the Illinois Waterway into Lake Michigan. The project uses an engineered channel, flushing lock and Automatic Barge Clearing Deterrent, along with acoustic, bubble and electric barriers.
The deterrents, combined with an electrical barrier at Romeoville, Ill., are designed to provide multilayered protection within the Chicago Area Waterways System, allowing continued transportation between the Great Lakes and the inland river system while preventing the spread of invasive species into the Great Lakes.
The most recent contract supports the design and engineering construction phases of the third and final major increment of the project. It involves completing the channel modifications and the final layers of defensive technology, including the electric and acoustic deterrents and the engineered channel’s concrete walls and floor, along with a support facilities building and a downstream boat ramp.
The contract is the second to be awarded since the Detroit Engineer District took over project supervision and management and the third contract overall.
On April 9, Assistant Secretary for the Army for Civil Works Adam Telle announced he had directed management and execution of the project to be transferred from the Rock Island Engineer District to the Detroit District to ensure that the project progresses in close coordination with the state of Michigan. The states of Michigan and Illinois split the required non-federal cost share of the project, which was reduced to 10 percent of the total project cost. The federal government is paying for the remaining 90 percent of the estimated $1.15 billion project.
On April 11, the Corps of Engineers awarded the awarded the second contract for Increment I of the project to J.F. Brennan Inc., of La Crosse, Wis. The contract is valued at $113.8 million and included machinery that prevents the carp from hiding in spaces between the ends of barges in a tow, a bubble barrier in the lock approach that the fish don’t like to swim through and an underwater speaker system that projects noise.
In a video posted to the Detroit District Facebook page May 20, Telle announced that construction related to that contract is now underway, with crews setting the groundwork for the first of the three major construction increments.
The first award of $15.5 million for Increment I was awarded to Miami Marine Services, partnering with Michels Construction, Inc., of Milwaukee, Wis., in November 2024. It included site preparation and channel rock excavation work that was completed in July 2025.
Additionally, the fiscal year 2026 Civil Works work plan released April 3 includes $28 million to initiate the Flushing Lock and Right Descending Bank Construction contract.
Planning for the project began in 2019.
