The task of restoring levees goes far beyond patching up several dozen breaches of various sizes. The Corps has "sent out teams to investigate the entire system, not just areas where there were breaches," Baumy said. "We've identified areas we know were damaged."
Army engineers will not assume levees that withstood Hurricane Katrina remain strong enough to endure the next major storm, he said.
Independent engineers wonder whether the Army's deadlines are realistic.
"They made very optimistic estimates as to how fast they could get the work done," said Robert Bea, a civil engineering professor at the University of California-Berkeley who has studied the levees. The Army Corps "could be scrambling to finish before the first hurricane actually strikes. Nature isn't going to wait, and they're hoping they can do this rather rapidly."
This weekend Blageur noticed construction crews reinforcing bridge where Robert E. Lee crosses one of the canals. They were dumping large limestone blocks and lots of gravel. There didn't seem to have been a breach here, but they were dumping lots of gravel nonetheless.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment