Tagged: flood protection

An Army Corps of Engineers report has found debris buried in a levee built after Hurricane Katrina.

The levee protects the densely populated suburban West Bank neighborhoods across the Mississippi River from the main portion of the city.

The report says the levee meets the corps' design specifications and is not in danger of failure because of any unsuitable debris. But the report advises the corps to consider shoring up one portion of the levee built atop a "buried debris field."

Terrebonne Parish Levee District officials say a second-hand floodgate from Westwego could provide Pointe-aux-Chenes residents with some quick flood protection for a little money.

The Courier of Houma reports (http://bit.ly/NatJMM) that the 11-foot-tall barge floodgate was installed as stop-gap flood protection by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 2007 while it finished a larger floodgate in Bayou Segnette. It is set to be removed in August.

The Army Corps of Engineers says it's scrapping plans to build a levee system to protect a large area of south Louisiana against hurricane flooding on the Barataria estuary southwest of New Orleans.  The corps says the project wasn't economically feasible.

The Army Corps of Engineers has restarted bidding for a $700 million contract to design and build permanent storm surge closure and pump stations on three canals that end in Lake Pontchartrain. Levees on two of them broke after Hurricane Katrina, letting floodwaters into the city.

The projects represent the final major construction of the post-Katrina levee system.