Design Flaws In The Levees

[brucesw]

kjb434 had mentioned in one of the Katrina threads the importance of engineering analyses of just what caused the levees to give way so as to know what to do to fix the situation. This story in Tuesday's Chronicle is the first report I've seen.

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/nation/3430761

This seems to confirm what I heard a Corps of Engineers spokesperson say just a few days after the storm, that the 17th Street Canal wall gave way because the berm behind it that was supposed to reinforce it had been eroded, either by rains or over flow, and the wall couldn't hold the lake by itself.

Taller levees? Thicker levees? A system of multiple rows of levees like the Dutch use?

[Jeebus]

Taller levees? Thicker levees? A system of multiple rows of levees like the Dutch use?

What about a tree system like the Ewoks' use?

Just kidding.. Yeah, build em' taller, thicker, and more properly reinforced.

[Original Timmy Chan's]

kjb434 had mentioned in one of the Katrina threads the importance of engineering analyses of just what caused the levees to give way so as to know what to do to fix the situation. This story in Tuesday's Chronicle is the first report I've seen.

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/nation/3430761

This seems to confirm what I heard a Corps of Engineers spokesperson say just a few days after the storm, that the 17th Street Canal wall gave way because the berm behind it that was supposed to reinforce it had been eroded, either by rains or over flow, and the wall couldn't hold the lake by itself.

Taller levees? Thicker levees? A system of multiple rows of levees like the Dutch use?

I also read that the engineers determined that in some of the breach locations, the levees weren't overtopped, they just MOVED! They were literally pushed back by the force of the water on the lake/canal side. Apparently the levees weren't properly "bonded" to the existing ground, just kind of "piled" on top of the existing ground.

[kjb434]

Many of these levees were built before the time of new geotextile reinforcement that is commone among new levees. And since we know they weren't maintained, they never got updated.

It takes a lot for a levee to hold back rising water. Similar levee breaks occured along the Mississippi river up in the Midwest during the floods of 1993. Remember when St. Louis was flooded like New Orleans?

I can see these levees being some of the best in the world when they are rebuilt especially if the Army Corps is in charge.