McMillen Awarded $28.4M Army Corps Contract for Webbers Falls Dam Gate Replacement

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced it has awarded a contract for the Webbers Falls Tainter Gate Replacement and Repair project to McMillen with a total cumulative face value of $28.4 million. The firm-fixed-price contract will be performed at Webbers Falls Lock and Dam 16 near Gore, Oklahoma, with completion expected by May 31, 2030; the acquisition was unrestricted and drew two bids.

Webbers Falls Tainter Gate Replacement and Repair Details

The award notice covers an initial action valued at $19.6 million under contract W912BV-26-C-A021. The accompanying solicitation called for replacing and repairing spillway gates at Webbers Falls Lock and Dam, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers facility on the McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System.

The base scope calls for removing and disposing of Tainter Gates 7 and 5, fabricating replacement gates off site, delivering them to Webbers Falls and installing and commissioning the new equipment. The gate designs must fit within the existing structure while reusing the trunnion girders, pier anchorages and other existing features where feasible. McMillen must verify that those components can accommodate the weight and operating loads of the replacements.

The new gates will incorporate updated materials, fabrication practices and detailing intended to reduce fatigue and fracture concerns. Related work includes new seals, wire ropes, machined components, yoke assemblies and cathodic protection, followed by operational trials, watertightness testing and commissioning. The contractor may deliver the gates by road or by barge through the navigation system.

The contract also includes options to repair Tainter Gates 8, 10, 11 and 12. Those repairs may include structural steel work, abrasive blasting and painting, seal replacement, new cathodic-protection anodes, adjustment of wire-rope assemblies and acceptance testing. The facility will remain occupied during construction, and the specifications generally limit work to two gates at a time, with a gate required to pass its acceptance trial before work advances to the next one.

Webbers Falls is one of the locks and dams supporting navigation on the McClellan-Kerr system between Oklahoma and the Mississippi River. Its spillway contains 12 Tainter gates, making the project an asset-renewal effort focused on the reliability of existing water-control infrastructure rather than an expansion of the facility.

McMillen and Prior Webbers Falls Award

McMillen is based in Boise, Idaho, and has previously received Corps work involving hydraulic infrastructure, including a gate closure system at Broken Bow Lake. HigherGov also lists an earlier contract for the same Webbers Falls project awarded to the company. Federal spending records reviewed for this award indicate that the earlier contract was subsequently terminated for convenience, although publicly available records do not state the reason or explain whether the new award is a re-procurement or restructuring of that work.

This award was disclosed by the DoW in its daily press release. Additional contract details will be available on HigherGov in approximately 90 days under W912BV26CA021 after the contract is formally disclosed by the government.