An expansion of Tom Lee Park 30 years ago left little margin for error in a proposed $60 million revamp of the riverfront site, the Army Corps of Engineers says.

The city expanded the park in 1990-1993 as part of a massive stabilization of the Memphis bank of the Mississippi River by the Corps.

Regarding a new proposal pending for Tom Lee Park, the Corps noted, “a minimum safety factor was used in original design which may be a limiting factor to proposed construction.”

The statement is contained in a summary of a May 6 meeting, the second of two meetings since December between the Corps and representatives of the Memphis River Parks Partnership, which is proposing the Tom Lee Park transformation.

The Corps and the Partnership are in discussions to determine if the project will require a Corps permit to guard against harming the dike structure or public safety.

MRPP also is in city-ordered mediation with the Memphis in May International Festival, which believes the proposed park design could force the festival to downsize or relocate.

The Partnership wants to divide nearly 24 acres of flat, open riverfront land into three large lawns, create undulations in the terrain with a series of beams, plant hundreds of trees and add recreation facilities. It has maintained the design would accommodate Memphis in May’s Beale Street Music Festival and World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest.

Just the facts please: What to know about the hotly disputed Tom Lee Park plan

The Corps provided records of meetings held May 6 and Dec. 8, 2018, and copies of relevant emails in response to a public records request from The Daily Memphian.

The Corps’ chief concerns are potential harm to the Memphis bank’s stability, proposed alterations at the river’s edge, including concrete steps and a viewing overlook, and a habitat tower proposed at the south end of the park.

Memphis River Parks Partnership president and CEO Carol Coletta addressed the Corps permitting issue in a recent interview.

“The fact is, our design team has been in conversation with the Corps since the riverfront concept was developed. … Nothing about the Corps is surprising. The Corps absolutely has a job to do. Nobody wants to hurt the dikes. So good for the Corps, they absolutely need to do everything they need to do to protect those dikes, I agree,” Coletta said.

The Corps’ chief concerns are potential harm to the Memphis bank’s stability, proposed alterations at the river’s edge, including concrete steps and a viewing overlook, and a habitat tower proposed at the south end of the park.

The Corps’ summary of the May 6 meeting said, “USACE (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers) reiterated how critical this federal project is to Navigation; millions of dollars per day in delay costs would be experienced by the towing industry if the bank should fail plus the expense to reestablish the dikes, berms and infrastructure damage.”

“Also communicated that the dikes and berm are critical to public safety by protecting the bluffs,” added the memo, written by permit coordinator Tanya Wells.

It referred to a failure of dikes at the south end during construction in the early 1990s and “near failure of the dikes due to very slight change in dike slopes.”

The early 1990s incident occurred during a city project to raise the park’s ground level to the current elevation. It’s unclear when the “near failure” occurred.

The memo said, “USACE emphasized that a stability analysis is critical to ensure the integrity of the dike and berm system. The analysis will be a challenging task. Present conditions and changes in the river system and other factors since previous analysis were performed will need to be taken into account.”

Saving Tom Lee Park: $60 million transformation plan spurs civic battle royal

The meetings were part of the Corps' “pre-coordination” process to determine if the project will require a permit to assure it doesn’t harm the river control project or public safety.

May 6 meeting participants included six Corps officials and representatives of project architect Studio Gang, its landscape architect SCAPE, civil engineers from Kimley-Horn, a geotechnical engineer with PSI and city engineer Manny Belen.

The design team’s presentation showed contours in the landscape would be achieved by cutting into the park up to 6 feet in places and building up the ground as much as 6 feet elsewhere. While such an approach would presumably not add to total weight behind the dikes, it would shift the weight.

One of the public concerns about the plan has been that adding berms to the park would add weight that would put more pressure on the dikes.

Tom Lee Park was expanded from about 5 acres to about 30 acres starting in 1988. Initially, the Corps of Engineers built a pyramidal, 50-foot-high stone berm jutting into the river to protect against powerful west-to-east river currents that threatened to undermine the Memphis bank.

The city got approval to raise the dikes higher and fill in behind them to create about 25 additional acres of park land.

The expansion of Tom Lee was key to Memphis in May greatly expanding signature events, making music fest a multiday, multistage event. Music fest had previously been a wristband-admission affair in clubs and Handy Park on Beale Street.

Memphis in May has guarded against changes to Tom Lee Park that might affect staging of the festival over the years, but the Partnership has won backing from the city administration for its park transformation, assuming it continues to accommodate the festival.

Emails show that the May 6 meeting between the Corps and Partnership was scheduled after Partnership officials publicly said they intended to begin work on the park's transformation in June, after the 2019 festival ended.

“It has been brought to my attention that the local news is reporting that construction of this project may start in June,” the Corps’ Tanya Wells said in an April 5 email to Lindsey Hearon of Kimley-Horn civil engineers.

“Please remember from the last meeting we had, it was discussed that any fill placed on the park will require an in-depth slope stability design which we believe will be challenging,” Wells said.

“As discussed in our previous meeting, it must be proven that there will be no adverse effect to the stabilization project in order to grant … permission. Should this stabilization project fail, navigation will be seriously impeded,” Wells said.

Hearon responded April 8, “Yes, we understand and have relayed the information that we must have USACE approved permits to begin construction.”

“As the media has communicated, there are mediations taking place regarding the project and our design team has temporarily been put on hold as they come to an agreement," Hearon said. "I do not know specifics regarding construction timing, however, we are continuing to communicate the permitting requirements.” 

In a Dec. 8 meeting between project design team members and the Corps, officials discussed project plans and requirements for geotechnical testing at the park, including boring test pits. No meeting summary was provided by the Corps.

On Jan. 2, Wells emailed Kimley-Horn, saying “Someone mention(ed) to me that they saw a drill crew out on Tom Lee Park. USACE have not approved of any drilling/test pit locations. You were going to send the actual locations and depths for our review. This must be reviewed prior to any drilling. What is the status of that submittal?”

Kimley-Horn and PSI engineers filed a permit request Jan. 9 to drill test pits. The Corps granted permission Jan. 28.

In the May 6 meeting, Corps officials agreed to seek preliminary feedback from the towing industry on a proposed viewing platform that would project over the river.

The Corps meeting summary said, “The overhang may be a safety concern. Safety to navigation, tugs hug this side of bank during high waters and downstream tows have no brakes and are concentrating on navigating thru the bridge piers. Don’t need another obstacle to miss. Public safety concern if people were on the overhang and it got hit.”

Regarding the proposed habitat tower, the summary said, “Although the location will have no effect on navigation, there are eddies in this area and drift accumulation that will affect the design. Bank stability will have to be analyzed.”

The Corps also highlighted concerns about a proposal to inject compost soil into the existing rock dike in what the project design team described as an effort to strengthen the dike and provide resilient growth.

The Corps said the compost grouting proposal might impede drainage of the dike and create maintenance challenges.

“Covering the riverward slopes of rock with soil and vegetation will inhibit our ability to evaluate stability and will adversely impact our ability to perform maintenance,” the memo said.

In a May 28 follow-up email to the Corps, Kimley-Horn’s Hearon said, “I did want to touch base on when we could expect the safety factor requirements and loading condition requirements for the stability analysis. Also, is there any update or movement for preliminary feedback regarding the overhang from the towing industry?”

Memphis River Parks Partnership officials have said that they can’t move forward with a full Corps of Engineers review of project plans until mediation has produced a final design concept.

Wells said in an email to Kimley-Horn that total time for review could be up to 120 days. Once the Partnership submits a formal request for review, the Corps would have 30 days to determine completeness of the request. The technical review would then take up to 90 days.