Friday, January 23, 2009

Keeping up with the Corps

A couple of articles about our ongoing levee upgrades have caught my interest

Levee work must wait years for study. Near the strip of land between Lakes Pontchartrain and Borgne. It would be far more efficient to focus efforts on gating the other end of Lake Pontchartrain at the Rigolets and Chef Pass. That will be one of the big 3 projects that determine the long term future of New Orleans, the other two being the closure of MR-GO and a huge diversion of the Mississippi River along the lines of what John Barry suggested at Rising Tide.

Corps sticks with its plan, despite pressure from shipping interests.

Work underway on MR-GO closure.

I actually haven't worked on any Corps work, but I in the same office as those who do. While this is just sort of a feeling that shouldn't hold any weight, it feels like the pace has picked up in the last 3-6 months. It's like things are finally starting to move forward. Did a fire get lit under someone's butt when they saw the waves lapping over the top in Gustav? Dunno.

The Corps looks like it's taking serious steps to protect the city. Kudos to them.

2 comments:

Tim said...

Did somebody just write something complementary about the Corps? *picks self up from floor* Wow!

As a matter of fact, it is a long road from planning to coordination with locals to study to public meetings to environmental impact assessment to final design to putting plans and specifications out to bid to starting construction to completing construction. And, yes, there's a huge chunk of work that is going to get loose in the coming year. The problem now is, are there enough dump trucks in the south to haul all that dirt?

Peace,

Tim

Clay said...

Call Boh Brothers and tell them to send their army of dumptrucks and navy of barges and tugboats.