Posted on 12/01/2005 7:57:22 PM PST by Imnotalib
Young, now helping to rebuild three damaged New Orleans canals between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain, said design drawings show that steel pilings reinforcing the levees should have been driven to a depth of 17 feet below sea level.
That does not appear to have been the case, based on preliminary findings by an investigative team led by Louisiana State University civil engineering professor Ivor van Heerden.
Using sonar, his tests have shown sheet pilings at the canal went to only 10 feet below sea level. Steve Spencer, chief engineer for Orleans Parish levees, said his agency did the plans under Corps guidelines. He said he could not explain without further investigation the discrepancy between the 17-foot depth in the designs and the 10-foot depth found by van Heerden's team.
Independent teams of engineers have said the levees were weaker than advertised because they were built on loose, porous soil that is prone to having water seep through it and that steel sheet pilings, even at 17 feet, were not driven deep enough. To compensate, they said builders should have used stronger earthen material and driven steel pilings far below the 18.5-foot depth of the canal bottom in an effort to prevent water from seeping through to the dry side of the levee and undermining the floodwall.
(Excerpt) Read more at katc.com ...
I'm waiting for the accusations that Bush engineered this while he was still governor of Texas in order to kill poor people, while I wonder if good old Louisiana fraud is the real culprit.
C'mon, now. You meant to say Bush was planning to kill poor BLACK people. ;-)
Yes, there it is, but for whatever reason, a search for "levees" didn't bring this up, and a repeat search after your post didn't get it either. Thanks, there's a little more detail on this post than what was in the paper.
Even better would be pilings down to bedrock. Bedrock is only about a thousand or two feet down. Piece of cake. Yep, NO is sitting on a thousand or more feet of mud.
Search is sometimes "on vacation". Try clicking on Katrina in the list across the top of the screen ... most of the LA/NOLA/HURRICANE/ETC. posts end up with someone or another adding Katrina as a keyword.
Cheers!
caryatid
Obviously Bush's fault.
Well, if one consider's that New O is 14 to 17 feet below sea level, one could say someone has the depth's all goofed up.
Thought Katrina had already proven that beyond a shadow of a doubt.
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