USACE: Spotlight on Galveston District’s Leslie Olson

With six months on the job as a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Galveston District supervisory civil engineer in the Engineering and Construction Division (Southern Area Office), Leslie Olson has her hands full, juggling the design of maintenance dredging projects in the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway (GIWW), Corpus Christi Ship Channel, Brazos Island Harbor and the Matagorda ship channels.

“My job is to ensure that we develop projects that promote safe and efficient navigation through the federal channels of the South Texas coast,” said Olson. “In order to fully develop those projects, I work with my team to collect, analyze and disseminate data that enhances and broadens our understanding of the regular conditions and behaviors of the channels in our area.”

Olson is one of many USACE Galveston District employees who play a key role in America’s well-being by keeping waterways open for navigation and commerce and oversees projects that deepen and widen waterways, such as ports, ship channels and the GIWW for the safe and expeditious accommodation of commercial waterborne traffic.

Responsible for maintaining more than 1,000 miles of channel, including 270 miles of deep draft and 750 miles of shallow draft, Olson and her colleagues are instrumental in keeping vital marine arteries open for waterborne traffic carrying cargo to and from Texas ports, which creates nearly 1.4 million jobs and generates $82.8 billion in personal income annually.

Source: USACE