Flood Protection for New Orleans
Army Corps of Engineers Build Structures to Supplement Levees
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers completed three flood prevention structures in New Orleans. Massive steel gates and auxiliary pumps highlight the structures design.
In September of last year, the Army Corps of Engineers unveiled three newly designed flood protection structures in New Orleans, Louisiana. The city’s canal system failed in August of 2005 during Hurricane Katrina, and the completion of these structures marked the first real sign of progress in the federal government's plan to secure the city from future man-made disasters.
The 17th Street Canal, the Orleans Avenue Canal, and the London Avenue Canal were breached by Hurricane Katrina’s storm surges. These canals connect the Mississippi River and Lake Ponchartrain to facilitate the drainage of floodwater during heavy rain flow. These three canals now host the Corp’s solution to future problems, the three complex structures that are engineered to prevent future storm surges from entering the city’s streets and neighborhoods.
“From a government standpoint we thought, we need to get this city back,” said Engineer Jerome Boudreaux, a native of Slidell, Louisiana who was involved in the design and construction of the facilities.
Massive flood gates, anchored more than one hundred feet into the ground, are lowered in the event of a storm. These gates are equipped to safeguard against 18 feet of rushing water.
In 2005, Katrina’s highest water surge in New Orleans was recorded at 11 feet.
“In hindsight, there were no predictions [of water surge levels],” said Boudreaux. “People [now] need to feel safe.”
In total, the three interim structures contain a total of 27 flood gates and 73 individual pumps combined. These temporary flood prevention systems were pointedly designed for the city, and as quickly as possible.
“The most critical thing for us was to get the gates up before the start of the 2006 hurricane season,” said Dan Bradley, a Corps engineer. “The public was really focused on it and we got the job done.”
However, the blueprints for this undertaking don a heavy price tag. The federal government has appropriated over seven billion tax dollars to revamp hurricane protection systems in Louisiana, which will fund over one hundred projects like this one.
“When people depend on the government to feel safe, we have to balance the costs [of these projects] against getting the public confidence back,” said one Army Corps Engineer.
Each of the three sites is built around one large flood gate, which is lowered during a storm to block lake water from entering the canals. That gate is flanked by a number of pumps that work to re-route floodwaters from within the city back into Lake Pontchartrain. These structures are manned by Corps of Engineers personnel, and are designed to supplement the existing pumping stations operated by the Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans.
Work on the city’s three main canals, including repairs of the breached levee walls as well as completion of the impermanent flood gates, wrapped in August of 2007. Engineers currently run the new pumps once a week during hurricane season and monthly in the off-season.
“The whole metro area combined has the most pumping capacity in the world,” explained Clyde Barre, one Civil Engineer who led a tour of the London avenue station.
Many New Orleanians do blame the Army Corps of Engineers for the levee failures that occurred during Hurricane Katrina, which in turn allowed floodwaters to drain into the city destroying as much as 70% of New Orleans. However, the recent unveiling of these structures aims to spearhead the federal governments campaign to appease public scrutiny of the Corps of Engineers.
 |
 |
 |
 |
