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Design flaws behind New Orleans levee failures
From: "Richard M. Smith" <rms () computerbytesman com>
Date: Fri, 30 Dec 2005 16:32:53 -0500
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-4/11359258922999 60.xml Corps never pursued design doubts Higher-ups raised red flag, then dropped it Friday, December 30, 2005 By Bob Marshall Staff writer The engineering mistakes that led to the canal levee failures that flooded most of New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina were found and then dismissed in the Army Corps of Engineers' design review process in 1990, an investigative team reviewing the failures says. Documents, obtained by The Times-Picayune and provided to forensic engineers studying the levee breaches, show project engineers made a critical mistake in assessing soil strengths on the 17th Avenue Canal project, said Robert Bea, a University of California-Berkeley professor who is a member of the National Science Foundation team. Corps documents show the mistake of overly optimistic levee strength was detected by its Vicksburg, Miss., office, which directed local engineers to make changes. But when the chief engineer in New Orleans replied that the results were based on "engineering judgment," his superiors dropped the issue. Bea said the discussion in the 16-year-old "design memo" points to the key decision that created fatal problems on the 17th Street Canal levee and could reveal a systemic problem that will show up during investigation into the London Avenue and Industrial Canal levees, which also breached during the Aug. 29 storm. "From all the data we have, from all the documents made available to us, that exchange highlights where the key mistake was made in the design process, and how it was allowed to stand," Bea said this week. "The design engineers didn't account for the weak layers in that swamp, and the Vicksburg office picks that up in review. But the New Orleans office says it's our professional judgment this is OK. In our business, that's an acceptable answer. But it's an answer Vicksburg can disagree with -- but it didn't. "And from the documents we have, the issue is never raised again. At least not until Katrina comes along." ... _______________________________________________ Fun and Misc security discussion for OT posts. https://linuxbox.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/funsec Note: funsec is a public and open mailing list.
Current thread:
- Design flaws behind New Orleans levee failures Richard M. Smith (Dec 30)
- <Possible follow-ups>
- RE: Design flaws behind New Orleans levee failures Todd Towles (Dec 30)