Corps Admits Design Flaws in 17th St. Canal Levee, New Orleans

[DeltaLady]

WASHINGTON — In the closest thing yet to a mea culpa, the commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers acknowledged Wednesday that a “design failure” led to the breach of the 17th Street canal levee that flooded much of the city during Hurricane Katrina.

Lt. General Carl Strock told a Senate committee that the corps neglected to consider the possibility that floodwalls atop the 17th Street Canal levee would lurch away from their footings under significant water pressure and eat away at the earthen barriers below.

“We did not account for that occurring,” Strock said in an interview after the Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing. “It could be called a design failure.”

http://www.nola.com/newslogs/tpupdates/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_tpupdates/archives/2006_04_05.html#128390

[Erika]

1. Oh, they are so sorry OK.

And who will never be held responsible.

[Bacchus39]

4. considering the levees were built decades ago

you are probably correct.

[pitohui]

7. london ave. canal reinforced in the 1990s

by the way the couple i knew who were killed by the collapse of the london ave. canal survived betsy just fine in that same house

the mistakes were not made decades ago, they were made in the 80s and 90s

the old-style levees along the mississippi river seem to have kept uptown and the french quarter above water

they know who signed off on those designs, already found one old boy in vicksburg whose only comment on the subject has been no comment, they know perfectly well what they did and what they let slide, there are documents from the late 80s spelling out these issues!

[Theduckno2]

2. The Bush administration will issue a retraction this afternoon?

Evidently the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was not aware that it was Hurricane Katrina that was plagued with a design failure and was never supposed to go near New Orleans.

On a related note, George Bush will be in the Rose Garden this afternoon, weather permitting, talking to the one responsible for the failure.

Gee, I feel so much better!

[Debau2005]

3. uhhh...

You think? :eyes:

[DUHandle]

5. I'd like to see how much

work the Corps has been doing annually in N.O. and at what expense.

[0007]

6. bttft

[Sgent]

8. They just finished

strengthening that Levee (17th St Canal) within 1 yr of Katrina.

[Igel]

9. That's true, but it was basically refurbishing.

Things like reinforcing armoring, correcting for subsidence and erosion--in effect, bringing the levees up to height and to spec where they were out of compliance.

They apparently drove in sheet steel in the early-mid '90s to reinforce the floodwall--or maybe to add the floodwall?

Whether that implemented the design feature responsible for last fall's failure, I don't know; the '90s work took the preexisting levees as a base, and the offending flood-wall may already have been in place.