G*d dammit! NOLA floodwall pilings SHORTER than those that failed in 05

[n2doc]

Canal pilings come up short
Corps not worried, but observers wary
Saturday, April 14, 2007
By Sheila Grissett
East Jefferson bureau
Some 1,800 feet of concrete-capped floodwall along the west side of the 17th Street Canal is anchored by steel sheet pilings driven into the levee only 4.5 feet below sea level, making them 13 feet shorter than pilings that failed south of Hammond Highway during Hurricane Katrina and contributed to massive flooding in the city.


Just across the canal on the New Orleans side, where the Army Corps of Engineers soon plans to raise and widen the levee in the Veterans Memorial Boulevard area to guard against another failure, sheet pilings range from 5 to 14 feet deep, according to figures provided by the corps.

But corps engineers say the shallow sheeting poses no threat because water in the canal won't be allowed to rise against the floodwalls this storm season as it did with catastrophic results during Katrina, but will instead be restricted to a "safe" elevation, which is tentatively set at 6 feet.

Corps officials are confident in that assessment because they just wrapped up a year of "painstaking" testing, the most extensive technical analysis ever performed on the huge drainage canal separating Jefferson and Orleans parishes.

"We've done the analyses, and the results convince us that underseepage wouldn't cause the walls to fail anywhere in the 17th Street Canal because of the steps we're taking, which includes limiting the amount of water in the canal," said Walter Baumy, chief engineer of the corps' New Orleans district.

Other observers, including a number of independent experts who have conducted separate investigations into the levee failures, are not yet convinced, and they say the corps should get an independent evaluation of its analyses and conclusions.

Some of those investigators think that underseepage, which occurs when water seeps through soils underlying levees and undermines stability, contributed to some of the floodwall and levee failures during Katrina. And they're concerned about the shallow sheeting.

"The corps convinced itself in the past that their short-sheet design wouldn't be a problem, and our investigation proved that was a fatal flaw," said University of California-Berkeley engineer Bob Bea. "Now I'm hearing 4 ½ feet, and even with a safe water level of 6, that gives me the heebie-jeebies."

more:
http://www.nola.com/printer/printer.ssf?/base/news-8/1176527661173440.xml&coll=

Anyone want to bet their homes on the COE's ability to limit water in the canal? With all the friggin' money we are wasting in Iraq, we go cheap here-again. :banghead:

[pitohui]

1. i don't know why anyone would rebuild in the area served by the 17th street canal

i will never live in that area again, personally

[karlrschneider]

3. Haven't you noticed? We liberals expect the government to protect us against

any conceivable or even unimaginable threat.




:eyes:

[donco6]

2. Why this is utterly outrageous:

The ONLY reason this would happen is MONEY. Picture the scenario: Your government is accused of purposely neglecting the levees, leading to a terrible disaster. Their competence is further called into doubt by the bungling during the storm's aftermath - which is joked about to this very day. So what would any sensible government wanting to protect its ass do? Why it would throw MONEY at the problem. That's what a normal government would do - and for good or ill, often it works.

But here in this case, the Bush government is so STUPID and so EVIL, that they cannot even authorize the type of funds that are needed to save this city and save their own asses! These people have TRILLIONS at their disposal. Hell - they can unilaterally go into DEBT if they *don't* have the money! So there is NO REASON on earth that these levees shouldn't have been replaced by a monumental system worthy of protecting one of the oldest cities in North America. But NO - the Bush gang is too busy with their hand in the till for Iraq, oil and all their robber baron friends.

It's just disgusting. Outrageous.

Sorry for all the caps. But REALLY . . .

[unblock]

4. not only that, but the politization of EVERYTHING means

well, that EVERYTHING must be viewed through a political prism.

if they purged the justice department to get toadies in, why wouldn't they have purged elsewhere? what makes anyone think that the army corps of engineers would be immune from such a purge, or other political pressure?

[karlrschneider]

5. I have a great idea: dredge the Everglades and build a few cities there

below sea level (which will never rise) and move a few million more people in. With big huge levees, that'll do the trick, insurance against any natural phenomenon, right? Mike Chertoff can take care of it, no problem.

[pitohui]

6. and this is the wealthy white lakeview area when we're talking 17th st canal

they even shit on their own, honestly, i don't know why anybody who has less than $20 million dollars would ever vote for a republican because they will crap on you just as fast as they'll crap on a homeless person, in fact, it won't bother them at all when you yourself become a homeless person

*sigh*