Engineer cites delay in N.O. levee work|[4/13/06]

Published 12:00 am Thursday, April 13, 2006

With Wednesday’s arrival of long-awaited flood advisories and revised cost estimates for repairing levees in and near New Orleans as a backdrop, an Army Corps official said one key component could still not be specified.

Funding in addition to the $2.5 billion the Bush administration has already requested to pay for levee repairs in most of the metropolitan area will be sought from Congress, officials from multiple federal agencies said Wednesday in a release by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Much of that original request will allow the Corps to raise levees as much as 7 feet in some areas and replace existing I-walls, such as with the 17th Street Canal structure, with T-walls, thought to be stronger at the base and less likely to slide and give way in the soft soils of southeast Louisiana.

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Addressing the Vicksburg Lions Club, project manager and coordinator for the federal Task Force Hope recovery effort, David Jenkins, said while T-walls are to make up part of the plan for permanent levee improvements, their exact locations have not been determined. Work can’t start until that happens.

&#8220There’s always a problem with real estate issues and such. But the overall goal is to keep the surge out of New Orleans,” Jenkins said.

A civil engineer with the Corps for 12 years before his assignment to the Louisiana Coastal Area wetlands restoration project in 2005, Jenkins addressed portions of a levee improvement plan that flowed from a group of engineers, scientists and Corps officials, the Interagency Performance Evaluation Task Force.

Among them was armoring the inland sides of levees to protect against &#8220scouring” of the soil, storm-proofing pumping stations along outfall canals in Orleans and Jefferson parishes and incorporating all levees in the area under federal jurisdiction.

Those improvements were slated for a 2010 completion date in the announcement.

Jenkins, who worked in the area of restoring coastal wetlands in the LCA effort, later said he expects more money to be authorized by Congress in the next funding cycle.

Approximately 40 percent of the coastal wetlands of the lower 48 states is located in Louisiana. It is estimated that Louisiana has lost up to 40 square miles of marsh per year for several decades due to Mississippi River sediment being hemmed in and flowing into the Gulf of Mexico and decades of canal digging activity for oil exploration.

&#8220Any barrier you have is better than nothing,” Jenkins said.

Donald Powell, the federal coordinator for Gulf Coast rebuilding, said President Bush would ask Congress for the additional money to improve levees in Orleans, Jefferson, St. Bernard and St. Charles, which protect 98 percent of the area’s population.

Additionally, base flood advisories awaited since early in the year were announced. That information is used by communities to reduce flood risks, but it is also linked to certification of an area’s levees.

Later this year, the Federal Emergency Management Agency will begin formally examining flood elevations and release final and binding flood maps that reflect 100-year protection.