$23.1 Million USACE Contract Awarded to L.B. Foster for Gerdau Ameristeel PZC Piling. PITTSBURGH, July 17 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- L.B. Foster Company (NASDAQ: FSTR) of Pittsburgh, PA has been awarded a $23.1 million contract to provide steel sheet piling to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) for the construction of T-wall type flood walls in the New Orleans area. The PZC(TM) piling will be manufactured in lengths of 20 to 75 feet at the Gerdau Ameristeel Petersburg, VA facility and stored for convenient availability at L.B. Foster's New Orleans storage facility. "Our local distribution facility will allow quick contractor access to the material required for T-wall installation in the USACE New Orleans District," said Ernie Koehler, L.B. Foster Construction Products Sales Manager. T-wall construction is a field-proven design for effective flood wall structures that must withstand the surge elevation of a 100 year type hurricane. PZC-13 sheet piling will form an efficient below ground cutoff wall to prevent or minimize lateral water migration from undermining the T-wall. A protective coating of 16 mils of coal tar epoxy will be applied to the top 15 feet of each PZC steel sheet to assure long term corrosion resistance. "Our domestically produced PZC sheet piling is manufactured to be wider, lighter and stronger than traditional Z piling. The Army Corps has deemed this product to be an efficient solution for this type of critical application," noted David Maedgen, Gerdau Ameristeel Piling Sales Manager.
