Studies confirm New Orleans levees' flaws

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Government engineers performing sonar tests at the site of a major levee failure confirmed that steel reinforcements barely went more than half as deep as they were supposed to, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers official said Wednesday.

"We've come up with similar results" to those from earlier tests performed by Louisiana State University engineers, said Walter Baumy, the Corps' chief engineer for the New Orleans District.

Baumy said the Corps intends to pull out pieces of the remaining wall along each edge of the breach at the 17th Street Canal to verify the sonar test results. The canal itself is now mostly dry at the breach site, with temporary walls holding back water from each side.

Baumy said the Corps cannot explain the disparity between what its 1993 design documents show was supposed to be there and what they've found.

The documents indicated that the steel reinforcements in the levee, known as sheet piling, went to a depth of 17.5 feet below sea level. Sonar tests indicated the pilings went only to 10 feet below sea level, meaning the flood wall would have been much weaker than intended.

The LSU team is working on a report for the state that will say there were serious, fundamental design and construction flaws at both the 17th Street and London Avenue canals. Both broke during Hurricane Katrina, flooding much of the city.

The team's leader, Ivor van Heerden, said Wednesday that the levee design ensured failure under the type of water pressure exerted by Katrina's storm surge.

The team's computer modeling showed that the designs failed to account for loose, porous soils such as sand and peat that were prone to allowing water to seep from the canal through to the dry side of the levee.

Much deeper steel pilings driven well below the canal bottoms likely would have stopped seepage to the dry side, engineers have said. The bottom tip of the pilings, at 10 feet below sea level, did not reach the canal bottoms.

But LSU computer models showed that even if the pilings had gone to 17.5 feet below sea level at 17th Street as design documents said they should have, they still would have failed.

Engineering studies prior to construction of the flood wall were performed by Eustis Engineering, Modjeski and Masters Inc. and the Corps. Members of the LSU team have expressed shock that all three could have missed what they characterized as fundamental flaws.

Calls to Eustis and Modjeski and Masters were not returned Wednesday. Van Heerden said the federal government bears ultimate responsibility.

I had thought that this levee wann't even built for the Corps. I thought that the River levee and the Lake Levee were the two Corps works. It was my understanding that this one even was only partially funded with COE money and that it was built by the local Levee districts and the State of Louisiana. with most of the impacted folks I know in Mississippi, I haven't really paid that strick of attention to the details of this battle we will watch for years to come, but I know that the COE folks I have worked with are pretty stand-up fellows. They have their institutional culture that makes them a little obtuse to those of us in the outside world, but I would be amazed if a COE team looked the other way if by chance this was something they provided field management of overall.

I think that this probably had a 60% COE grant and they were one of five bodies sent the initial plans for funding verification and it was the local levee board and government that this was built for.

However, if the media sees that a U. S. Army Corps of Engineers truck parked alongside the proposed site when attending the Ground Breaking and never saw the job from that point on, it will still be "Bush's fault."

When the first sonar results came out, there were also reports that at least two different periods of construction took place after the ortiginal structure was built under Corps supervision.

As I recall those reports, the Sewer Board pulled the original steel, did some work, then drove new steel.

First thoughts I had were of a truck load of 18' steel to "show & shuttle" and lots of hidden 10' or 12' to actually drive, with invoices showing all of it 18', and stamped "Paid In Full", and debits to match.

Be interesting to pull this stuff, and check its thickness and grade, too.

You may be interested in this, more than you probably have time to read regarding the NO levee failures:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1517817/posts

Also, to all, I attempted to e-mail Ms. Malkin, but Yahoo is acting up and I'm not sure it went out. Can someone please direct her to the above link I posted for KC Burke?

Thanks.

"As I recall those reports, the Sewer Board pulled the original steel, did some work, then drove new steel. "

Yep.

Notice the CoE have yet to utter a peep, officially? They know exactly what happened at every step with the levees that even partially bear their stamp of approval, and they are no neophytes to New Orleans corruption.

I expect they will provide all documentation as requested, and testify when subpoenaed, but they also have to live and work with the criminals that profited from the substandard levee repairs, and probably aren't looking forward to feeding the fishes.

A buddy of mine who lives down there says some of the wealthiest people in the NO area are "Highway Inspectors", whatever the hell that is.

It's been my experience (used to work in the business) that engineers do the plans & specs and hardly ever visit the jobsite--unless it's to fix a screw up. These screw ups are usually caused by the engineers not spending enough time at the jobsite before designing the project. Can't count the times I've seen things like flush-mounted panels specified to go into existing CONCRETE walls.

Anyways, it's the agency inspectors who confirm the project is built per plans & specs.

I was going to ping both of you!

Jeffers, you did all the work. I hope you write a book. Yes it's a lot of information, but it is fascinating, given what actually happened. Too bad you weren't on the levee board Jeffers.

My heart is still in LA. I have tried so hard to help but everything I tried t do failed. I went to Red Cross and toook stuff, the people did not come here, I left it anyway. I tracked them down in another town, went there and was turned away. Put my name on the volunteer list, they never called. I sent a package to a shelter in Houma and it came back "undeliverable" just this week.

It's very disheartening when you want to help and cannot. I did dotate to animal rescue and Red Cross tho. I hope it helped someone. Some animal.

Jeffers, If this section is so under constructed and we know the way NOLA did things why are we not to assume that there are many other sections of levees that came within a hair's breath of failing? My point is what happens next year when a storm pops up in the GoM? Everybody out? I'd think so.

Well, there's several questions rolled up in your post.

These sections were rebuilt by the New orleans Sewer and Water District and the Orleans Levee Board. They hired a pair of design firms who originally recommended 35 foot piles, ignored them and let contracts for 17.5 foot piles.

After the work had started they allowed the Corps of Engineers to inspect the design, and the people tasked to this were uncomfortable with the 17.5 foot tip depth, but were overruled by their superiors at the CoE, who wanted to observe the performance of the piles while working up to a project to cap the piles with concrete walls.

The documents I've seen indicate that the Corps mandated the 17.5 foot depth, and there has not been sufficient explanation as to why the piles were only driven to ten feet.

The simple fact that there's a question like this raises concern about other projects undertaken by locals without the Corps of Engieers as lead agency. There is a fourth section of capwall, across from the north London Canal breach, where the capwall was leaned inward about three feet and showed evidence of significant amounts of water flowing in under the sheet piling.

In my opinion, the porobability of additional failure cannot be discounted, and depends mostly on how many projects were designed by the locals, unsupervised in the critical early stages by the Corps of Engineers.

However, I wouldn't base a decision to stay or evacuate on the answers to this question. The levee breaches and failures that already exist are more than enough to prompt me to get out.

The malfeasance of the Levee Board and the Sewer and Water Board are icing on the cake.

Thanks,

My take is that these "coastal wetlands preserve" folks have it bacasswards.

The engineering way to protect NOLA would be to raise it via dredge and fill creating a super Venice (or Punta Gorda). Or defend it the way the Dutch do. Looking at the maps this would first entail a huge dyke along the eastern "shore" of the Lake, drain the Lake (windmills), put in a series of dykes and canals, and turn over the newly reclaimed land to dairy farming. To the south of NOLA there needs to be a series of cencentric dykes with coffers, canals and emergency pass-throughs.

I'm sure this would cost a ton but making a bit more swamp and keeping people off of it is a waste of time and money and as long as that lake is there and full it presents a hazard to the city.

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