Posted on 05/21/2008 5:19:49 PM PDT by Dawnsblood
Despite more than $22 million in repairs, a levee that broke with catastrophic effect during Hurricane Katrina is leaking again because of the mushy ground on which New Orleans was built, raising serious questions about the reliability of the city's flood defenses.
Outside engineering experts who have studied the project told The Associated Press that the type of seepage spotted at the 17th Street Canal in the Lakeview neighborhood afflicts other New Orleans levees, too, and could cause some of them to collapse during a storm.
The Army Corps of Engineers has spent about $4 billion so far of the $14 billion set aside by Congress to repair and upgrade the metropolitan area's hundreds of miles of levees by 2011. Some outside experts said the leak could mean that billions more will be needed and that some of the work already completed may need to be redone.
"It is all based on a 30-year-old defunct model of thinking, and it means that when they wake up to this one — really — our cost is going to increase significantly," said Bob Bea, a civil engineer at the University of California at Berkeley.
The Army Corps of Engineers disputed the experts' dire assessment. The agency said it is taking the risk of seepage into account and rebuilding the levees with an adequate margin of safety.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
It’s W’s fault. He really ought to be down there inspecting those leevees and the repair work going on.
ENOUGH ALREADY!
Move the city to higher ground...
gezzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...
Isn't that what this bureaucrat-laden "agency" said about the levees in the first place?
Once again, politics, bureaucracy, and mismanagement is going cost the American taxpayer billions of dollars - and all of it pi$$ed down the drain to save a sinking cesspool of demoncrap corruption.
Move the city.
New Orleans sits on a deep layer of mud and river silt. There is no bedrock for a hundred feet down in some places. If the water pressure on the water side of the levee gets high enough, the water will just flow UNDER the levee until it undermines it
For the life of me I do not understand why were people allowed to rebuild under sea level?
Bbbbut they have such a nice model of the ribba.
Just like our education system, all it needs is more money and it will continue to be mushy.
Rebuilt the city on a slurry wall like the bathtub surrouding the World Trade Center.
It is crazy to live below the water level that way AND expect
the rest of the country to pay for it.
Lollin’ Lollin’ Lollin down da liva
It can’t be moved, in real terms - I mean, you could evacuate the city, raze it, condemn the land, and commercial interests would put it right back. (Actually, that might have been cheaper...)
Port cities exist for a reason.
“ENOUGH ALREADY!”
Exactly. The parts of this city that are not above sea level should be permanently condemned. The idea that we the taxpayers will rebuild public housing below sea level is absolutely offensive.
It is ironic to look at the parallels between the city and the welfare system that is so entrenched there. Both are built on faulty foundations/premises and ultimately lead to failure no matter how much money the taxpayers spend on them.
The tourist zone French Quarter is above the water line. The below-water parts should be abandoned as unviable
Not if the taxpayers quit subsidizing flood insurance.
Actually, the commercial part of a port is darn hard to mess up.
Concrete slabs don’t NEED flood insurance.
“Port cities exist for a reason.”
I don’t disagree. It is a vital port without question.
However, I don’t think the workers needed to operate the port live in public housing. We (the taxpayers) should not be paying to rebuild and maintain public housing below sea level.
Do you not believe we can keep the port without public housing?
In fact, I do agree.
And I proposed years ago, that the solution to NOLA is to turn it into a commercial landfill.
It would solve all sorts of problems.
Fill in with trash between the levees, compact it, build the new port on top.
True, but that's inconsistent with "...evacuate the city, raze it, condemn the land,..."
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