When Baton Rouge-based Evans-Graves Engineers was recently competing for work on a levee project in Jefferson Parish, the firm’s owner and president, John Graves, entered a meeting at which he’d pitch Evans-Graves’ skills with a large paper bag under his arm. When it was his turn to speak to the board considering several firms’ proposals, Graves sat down and put the paper bag in front of them.
“I told them, ‘I’ve heard it been said that you’re only as good as your last outing,'” Graves recalls. “And then I pulled this book out of the bag and said, ‘This is our last outing.'”
The book was The Fortress of New Orleans, a 245-page pictorial and technical account of the construction of the largest civil works project completed in U.S. history: the $14.5 billion levee system built around New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. Evans-Graves managed about 80% of all the work that went into building the system, Graves says.
The book, released on Aug. 15, is a large, coffee table–style book loaded with photos of the work and maps of where the various structures are located. But the book is also filled technical information on each component of the total project, as well as complete details on when contracts were awarded, who did the work, how much it cost and how long it took.
“This book documents one of the greatest achievements of our time,” writes John Paul Woodley Jr., former assistant secretary of the Army for Civil Works, in the book’s forward.
The Fortress of New Orleans retails for $49.95 and is available online. Graves says he has pledged all proceeds to the LSU College of Engineering, his alma mater. In 2009, Graves was inducted into the LSU Civil and Environmental Engineering Department’s Hall of Distinction.
For complete details on the book and order information, check out its website here.
“It’s legendary, but hopefully there will never have to be another project like this,” Graves says of the levee system built in New Orleans. “It was a real honor to be a part of this. I love civil engineering, and for me, I just think: What a way to close a career.”
And as for that job that Evans-Graves was recently in the running for in Jefferson Parish?
“Oh, we got the job,” Graves says with a smile.
