The joint meeting of the Utility, Cable, Telecommunication, and Technology Committee and the Public Works, Sanitation, and Environment Committee convened on July 22, 2026. The meeting covered updates on Lincoln Beach restoration, hurricane preparedness and reliability reports from Entergy New Orleans, a review of the July 11 flooding incident by the Sewerage and Water Board (S&WB), and two resolutions regarding electric reliability standards and a rate plan extension.
All right, good morning, everyone. Can we ask everyone to please take their seats? Uh today is Wednesday, July twenty second. This is the joint meeting of utility cable telecommunication and technology, as well as public work, sanitation, and environment. Um, can I ask that we please call the role? Good morning, Council members. Councilmember He is present, Councilmember Morrell present, Councilmember Willard, present, Councilmember Green's in the back, but I can see him. Uh, Councilmember Harris present, Council Member McCarron present. We have a quorum. All right, thank you very much. Uh Director Spears, agenda item number two, approval of the minutes, March eighteenth. Uh, joint uh utilities, public works. Um, President Morrell moves adoption of the minute, second by Vice President Willard. Is there any objection? Uh five years. Six years, no nays. All right, agenda item number three presentation, uh, Lincoln Beach from our Chief Sustainability Sustainability Officer, uh, Miss Megan Williams. She'll provide a very quick update uh on the status of Lincoln Beach. Don't think there's been much changes since our last meeting, but I'll turn it over to you, or Chief, rather, I'll turn it over. Um, just to give you a lot of things. Um, in conjunction with our design consultant renegade, our digital engineering, and our construction management at risk contractor um renegade. So I'd like to I'm going to try and roll through this as quickly as possible, but before getting into the technical updates, I do want to uh just start with some of the guiding principles of the project. So our three commitments to this project are uh safe to safely restore access to the beach, to be transparent about the progress, the challenges, and the timelines, and to move forward with urgency without compromising the uh the quality of safety of the beach. We recognize that this is more than an infrastructure project, that it's a historic and cultural landmark, and we recognize the significance of opening the beach and every decision every decision that we make is focused on delivering a safe, sustainable, and lasting restoration. So, this is what directly shapes what we're prioritizing during phase one. Um I won't run through everything on this slide, but just to give you a quick overview of uh the elements of the infrastructure in this phase. Uh, we're increasing access and parking improvements to the beach. We're uh installing pedestrian safety utilities such as a bridge and including utility access through water sewer and drainage and electrical. We'll be adding restrooms and conducting some beach and shoreline restoration and waterfront repairs on unsafe uh structures that exist on the beach, and then we'll be restoring the two historic signs on the beach as well. Um to give you uh uh to back up a little bit on where we are and how we selected the contractor renegade because of the complex infrastructure involved in this project. We decided to go with the CMAR route, which we got approval through the state to do. And unlike traditional project delivery where we do design bid build, this process brings the contractor into the design process very early and allows us to evaluate the constructability, review costs throughout the design, and it allows us to identify uh value engineering opportunities and establish a guaranteed maximum price with the contractor on board. So it improves our cost certainty, uh, reduces the risk and positions the project for a much smoother construction phase. Uh one of the biggest things that we have uh achieved in this project is the agency coordination because of the multiple agencies involved in this. Uh, it's been quite an effort to make sure that all agencies are on board. We've met with Norfolk Southern, the Army Corps, DOTD, the Flood Plain Authority, uh, the Department of Conservation and Energy. We've also met with Sewage and Water Board, NOFD, and Safety and Permits, and based on the guidance that each of these agencies have given us, we restructured the project into three construction packages. All will still be happening under phase one. So rather than submitting each permit simultaneously, this will allow us to break it up and advance the project much quicker through different phases of construction. So our first project package will be the parking lot. This is the uh easiest and most straightforward of the infrastructure. The second will be the bridge tunnels and the utilities, and then the third will be the uh restoration of the beach and the waterfront structures. Uh some major milestones completed. Um we've received the 60% design package for the parking lot in April. In May, we conducted a cost modeling workshop with the design team and the uh contractor. Um this allowed us to refine those costs and find some significant cost savings in the first phase. And then in at the beginning of June, we also received the 60% design package for the bridge, the utilities, and the tunnel. Um, and then we completed some technical reviews with our city agencies as well, uh, DPW, sewage and water board, uh, city planning, and a few other and capital projects as well. Um, and then as of uh last week or two weeks ago, I believe, we also received the 90% design package for the parking lot as well. Uh this week we'll be conducting our cost modeling workshop to continue refining those costs as well.