For those folks -- including the people at the CBS Evening News who, on the Friday before the 5th anniversary of the 2005 flood, ran a glowing, two-and-a-half-minute-long video paean to the US Army Corps of Engineers' work on the "new, improved" hurricane protection system in New Orleans -- who believe the Corps' repeated reassurances that New Orleans "has never been safer," this report from the Times-Picayune should be required reading.
The story in a nutshell: Corps higher-ups have authorized the refusal to rust-coat the steel "sheet piling" being driven to anchor floodwalls in the eastern half of the city, choosing instead to use extra-wide steel, so-called "sacrificial steel" because the extra width is a gift to the Rust Gods. The New Orleans Levee Authority, reformed by the voters after the 2005 flood to include professional engineers, hydrologists, and other experts, now admits it's been emboiled in a months-long wrangle with the Corps over the decision. One commissioner calls the decision "a design flaw," a harrowing echo of the problems discovered by two independent forensic engineering investigations into the 2005 flood.
The Levee Authority wants the Corps to fast-track an independent review of the decision, while the Corps appears to be slow-walking that process until the driving of the uncoated sheet pilings is a fait accompli. This is where your $14 billion is going, America. Into "sacrificial steel".
UPDATE (9-21): For those of you still in doubt about the nature of the decision-making process at the Corps where human life is concerned, I commend to you these two paragraphs from a decision by the US 5th Circuit Court of Appeals against a contractor whose work failed at the Industrial Canal in the 2005 flood:
 The 5th Circuit said the Corps provided the company with "imprecise,
 and at times non-existent" specifications for what kind of backfill
 material to use.
 "Significantly, the evidence in the record shows that the sole
 consideration for the Corps in evaluating the backfill was the cost
 of the material," (Judge Jerry) Smith wrote.
Follow Harry Shearer on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@letwits
a 12" wide panel would, rust at the same rate as a 24" panel.
if the panels were 2' thick as oppossed to 1 ' thick, that would give the panel more time before rust through.
What is it going to TAKE to make Americans wake up and realize that long-term investment in high-quality, forward-thinking infrastructure is is ALL OUR interests?
It infuriates me when I see structures from the '30s and '40s that were funded by a progressive government that are STILL standing and still in fantastic shape, and yet the rest of this country is crumbling because right-wingers have brainwashed a majority of Americans into thinking that everything government does is WRONG.
Which is a baffling argument. It seems to me that we shouldn't reward a bad design with greater authority to implement that design, that this project would be better trusted to the New Orleans Levee Authority than to the ACOE, and maybe the ACOE should be fired from their position.
http://www.infrastructurereportcard.org/
Our overall grade? D
Our grade for levees? D-
We need $2.2 Trillion over 5 years.
We, as a people, simply will not spend the money required for a functioning civilization.
If complain constantly, can I have me a blog, too? Or do I have to do voices?
And BTW, I love Brad Pitt's re-housing project in the lower nine because they Make It Right The 1st time with each house they build.
Why can't the Corps of Engineers do this? Build it right the 1st time?
Well?
Does Grandma understand that the Corps of Engineers consistently chooses --to this day-- the technologically inferior engineering, the bad soils, the short cut steel, the underhanded project scheduling? The list goes on ad nausea. And as Crescent City Ray noted, they do this without regard to 1000s they already killed or 1000s more they endanger with such shoddy engineering practices.
While I know that reading what Harry writes in English can be quite difficult sometimes because, well, like y'know, it's so clearly stated, you should try sitting through his blisteringly factual documentary The Big Uneasy. Jeez Louie, the real data can get even harder to bear. Try listening, for once, to the very engineers and scientists who have First Hand Knowledge of the Corps engineering failures that doomed New Orleans 8/29/05.
The Big Uneasy will make its Oscar Qualifying run this week in Los Angeles and New York City from September 24-30
Thanks again, Harry.
Editilla~New Orleans Ladder
http://noladder.blogspot.com/
My point is this. Louisiana's changes to its levee boards was labeled 'reform' when the movement to add experts should have been labeled "empowerment." And in the words of the citizens group that led the movement, it was done so that never again would the citizens of New Orleans be at the mercy of the Army Corps of Engineers.
The top of the batters may be several (or dozens) of feet below the visible surface, stabilizing the footer, and preventing or minimizing lateral underground water flow. According to the manufacturer's website, the top 15 feet of the batters (i.e., the part above the water table) will -- will -- be coated with 16 mm of coal tar epoxy to provide long-term protection from corrosion.
As for the uncoated bottom of the pile, there is ample engineering data indicating that steel piles driven to these depths (assuming natural undisturbed soils) experience neglible corrosion over time. Why? Because rust = oxidization. And anybody who had high school chemistry knows that "oxidation" cannot occur in the absence of . . . oxygen. How neglible? About 1 mil (0.001 in.) per year. PZC-13 is 0.375 inches thick, so after about 125 years, the sheets will retain 2/3 thickness. And a wider pile means fewer joints, and less oxidation and greater structural integrity.
Much ado about nothing, although I do have reservations about the design's accounting for slope and soil effects.
Lots of geeky technobabble there. But for me personally (not necessarily attributable to these authors), the design of the T-walls might -- might -- not account sufficiently for (a) friction from subsurface movement of sandy soils sloughing off the oxidized protective layer on the batter sheet piles, and (b) effects on the batters from pressures other than subsurface water movement, such as pressures exerted by the slope of backfill necessary to create a levee in the first place. Many of the T-walls are or will be on levees, and given the soupy subsurface conditions, the slope of the levee might push or undermine the walls.
We refused Holland's expertise in this area, that's typical.
Seems like are chant here is 'let the market decide'..........STUPID really.
Its like putting a few extra layers of wax or urethane on a wood floor so that you won't have to recoat it as often.
How do we prevent the Corps from purposely incorporating stupid cheap engineering into our "protection" system, which they insist on calling a "risk reduction system"????
If this is a federal project, then pressure should be put on Louisiana's congress men to either get an oversight contractor or just hire a construction company with a record of success instead of a construction unit with half a century of failure after failure.
Please take the time to read up and understand that New Orleans and Louisiana have zero control over the feds and the Corps regarding hurricane protection levee systems. We take what we get whether we like it or not. Why cannot outsiders understand that. All we are allowed to do is pay our cost share - which we already paid pre-k, but they gave us just movie props for our money and given the opportunity, movie props is all we will get for our cost share this time, again.
How can the Corps be controlled? Where is due process? Why don't we get that here?
In 2007, after the Corps's system failed, Louisiana Congress members including Senator Mary Landrieu, backed by Levees.org voted to reform the Army Corps to require oversight in the form of peer review. It passed by a narrow margin.
What I DON'T understand, is the basis for your apparent faith that government can offer the solution. Not just with the levees in New Orleans, but overall. Were you impressed with the way the "stimulus funds" were allocated? Are you impressed with how those funds have been SPENT? I can't believe that could be the case. Do you REALLY THINK that Uncle Sam should be building cars or running the health care system? What is the basis for trusting them to get ANYTHING right? I just don't see it.
I know I don't have to tell you to keep up the yeoman's work you do. You're a treasure. But i will never share your faith that government is the answer. Government is the problem!
What really scalds my bones is the way the Corps is now moving to put Option 1 in the ground on the 3 outfall canals which flooded 80% of New Orleans, yet leaving the same bad floodwalls standing and technologically inferior to Option 2 --which would REMOVE THOSE BAD FLOODWALLS.
Long sentence I know. But if we could stop the Corps from running rough-shod over this entire Hurricane Protection System In Name Only, we would by default gain our "8/29 Investigation". If we can get Option 2 on our outfall canals, then we would see just how badly engineered are the remaining old bad floodwalls. This is the road to sanity. Why even think about leaving those old bad floodwalls standing? Aside from abject stupidity, it must be because to tear them down will most probably reveal even worse engineering malfeasance by the Corps of Engineers. http://bit.ly/9Byrbi
Now let's put every PR hack working for the Corps and their Stakeholders to bed. Can we finally move with Sound Civil Engineering Practice?
I think so.
Thank you,
Editilla~New Orleans Ladder
http://noladder.blogspot.com/
Yet, we intrust to the same federal government unwavering trust that they will use this same collective judgement to plan our health care, education, and retirement.
I see a disconnect from reality......
The Army Corps has been a problem for 150 years. One reason for that is all the competing pressure that's put on it by various factions. The problem is not that it resides in the public domain, but that it needs more people like Mr. Shearer and the Levee Commission holding it to task.
At least if it were a private corporation, they could be sued for their shoddy work.
Do you agree with the government that franken fish is safe for human consumption? Or that gulf shrimp are safe to eat?
I'm just puzzled why we accept without question that the government is pure and without faults.
These are things that would need to be clarified to make this article complete and discussion possible. Very poor reporting!
Do you trust the Corp to have really done their due diligence? Are you certain they are not shooting from the hip, like when they claimed locally, that the failure mechanism that caused the failure of outfall canal floodwalls, as predicted by USACE full scale experiment pre-k, was not worthy of concern because local Corps engineers claimed their engineering judgment was that the walls were sound as designed? Did they exercise good judgment when they fought in court to force a contractor to build their 17th Street Canal floodwalls exactly as the Corps designed despite the contractor insistence that the wall as designed would not hold back water?
I'm just saying do not assume the Corps is properly applying science in our best interest. We know better than that - from real life experience. They are the same exact Corps as they were pre-k, but even better funded.