Getty Honored With Distinguished Civilian Employee Award

Don Getty spent 25 of his 38 years working for the Corps of Engineers on the Kentucky Lock Addition Project, including 19 as the project manager.

Getty, 66, of Nashville, Tenn., retired in 2021, but his years of service were recognized in late December when he received the Nashville Engineer District’s Distinguished Civilian Employee Award for 2024. The district used the award ceremony as an opportunity to unveil Getty’s official nameplate at the district headquarters in downtown Nashville.

Getty recalled many of his accomplishments during his tenure, but said, “They reflect the quality of the people I worked with more than myself” and that he accepted the award “on behalf of those I have worked with.”

That’s typical for Getty, according to Craig Carrington, the district’s deputy for project management.

“Don was the kind of project manager who took all the blame and gave all the credit for success to his teammates,” he said. “Don took the time to get out from behind his desk and go to his team instead of them coming to him. He believed in face-to-face interaction so he could understand the issues and see firsthand what was happening. Don also believed in understanding the industry he was trying to help. He took the time to hear from barge operators so he could build something they could use effectively.”

Getty began working on the Kentucky Lock Addition Project in 1996. The project, with an estimated cost of $1.561 billion, involves the design and construction of a new, 110-foot, by 1,200-foot lock just landward of the 110-by-600-foot existing chamber at Kentucky Locks and Dam, Tennessee River Mile 22.4, near Gilbertsville, Ky. It was first authorized in the Water Resources Development Act of 1996, so Getty was involved right from the beginning. The new lock is scheduled to be complete in 2033, although the Corps recently indicated that delays could push that schedule out longer.

During Getty’s time at the project, he oversaw multiple contracts, encompassing both the superstructure and substructure contracts that included new bridges over the Tennessee River, the realignments of a highway and railroad and building the cofferdam, often during periods when receiving project funding was challenging.

It was common in the early days for the Corps to use six large engineering firms, all of which had subcontractors working on Kentucky Lock, Getty said. He added that there used to be a requirement that at least 40 percent of the work being done use outside firms.

“That’s since gone away, and more design work is being done in-house,” he said.

Aiding that work has been the advent of design centers, especially the Corps’ Inland Navigation Design Center, he said.

One of the biggest “wins” for Getty and his team was competing on what Getty called “a very uneven playing field” and being awarded competitive federal grant funds of $89 million for the project from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which passed Congress and was signed into law in February 2009.

“It provided a lot of funding for shovel-ready projects,” Getty said.

The amount was the most of any Corps of Engineers project in the country, he said, adding that without it he believes the project would have been “mothballed” in the 2010s since the Inland Waterways Trust Fund that partially funds it was “almost dry” at the time.

“Our ability to compete and get that money over time really saved the project,” he said.

The grant contract was written so that funds could be used into 2013. Ultimately, it led to the awarding of the upstream lock monoliths contract, he said.

Uncertain funding over the years has been a major challenge, Getty said. On top of that, inflation has been difficult to predict years in advance, although the Corps has begun using risk management techniques to make cost estimates more accurate.

The project has also faced challenging geologic conditions during construction. Much of the bedrock is composed of limestone, which contains minerals that dissolve when exposed to water. This creates karst or cave landscapes. Crews found as they drilled and blasted out rock to create the new lock chamber that they were encountering voids, which had to be filled with “dental concrete.”

In addition, construction has taken place in “extremely challenging working conditions,” at times only a few feet from an operational and extremely busy lock chamber.

Getty recalled the precision involved in building the downstream cofferdam over about five years beginning in 2016.

“We did the whole construction without a significant accident or incident,” he said. “I think that’s a tribute to the close working conditions we had with the navigation industry.”

Getty recalls working with numerous members of the industry, including port captains, to help the contractor develop practices and procedures to ensure a safe worksite.

“We were using techniques that had never been done before, lifting float-in sections weighing several million pounds in a way that had never been done before, with a specially built gantry crane,” Getty said.

One of the innovations allowed placing portions of the cofferdam wall in such a way they would become part of the future lock wall, meaning they did not have to be demolished when construction was complete.

Getty takes pride in seeing the Kentucky Lock Addition Project meet construction milestones and said that on trips to his second home on Lake Barkley, he still drives by the project site from time to time, taking a peep into the new lock chamber emerging from the bedrock from the Tony Ellis Bridge, the nearby highway bridge he helped the Corps design and build. He said he hopes that in a few years he will be able to attend the project’s ribbon-cutting ceremony, and that he “very much looks forward to the day that it opens and that we make efficient transportation even more efficient and even safer.”

As much as the concrete and steel accomplishments, though, Getty takes pride in the young people he helped mentor during his tenure. He said he tried to give young engineers, geologists and other professionals responsibility when he could and tried to reward them when they did well.

“It’s gratifying to see them moving up in the ranks now because of their efforts, not mine,” he said.

Some of those former coworkers, including ones on hand to see Getty receive the award, took a few moments to share their memories of him afterward.

“Don Getty freely gave of his time and talents to improve the teams he was a part of,” said Adam Walker, deputy chief of the Nashville District’s Engineering and Construction Division. “He was always willing to provide mentoring and coaching to his less experienced coworkers in order to make them better and thereby helping the team(s) achieve greater success.  One of Don’s greatest strengths was setting goals for the teams he led, charting a clear path to achieve the goals, and most importantly identifying challenges that may arise and proactively working to overcome them on behalf of his teammates.”

Joanne Mann, executive officer/Congressional liaison, praised him as well.

“Don Getty’s professionalism is second to none,” she said. “He deeply appreciates the value of teamwork and the vital role each individual plays.  I had the pleasure of working on several ceremonies and high-level events with Don, and I’ll always remember him as the man who would do anything, literally, that needed to be done. He wasn’t above making copies, stopping by the store to get bottled water or getting the vehicles cleaned and ready for distinguished visitors. Don never said, ‘It’s not my job,’ but instead, ‘What can I do to help?’”

In presenting the award, Maj. Jesse Davis, the Nashville Engineer District’s deputy commander, acknowledged Getty’s impact both on the project and on the people in the district, saying, “His leadership, mentorship and commitment to service have left a legacy that will continue to shape the district for years to come.”

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Photo caption: Don Getty receives the 2024 Distinguished Civilian Employee award from Maj. Jesse Davis, deputy commander of the Nashville Engineer District, during a ceremony in December. Getty spent 25 of his 38 years working with the Corps involved with the Kentucky Lock Addition Project, including 19 of those as project manager. (Photo by Jeremy Croft/Nashville Engineer District)