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October 31, 2005 Vol. 77,
no. 10F
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| BARGE
IN: From left, CEE professor Bob Bea, CEE
graduate student Rune Storesund, and CEE professor Ray Seed pose
in front of a beached barge found near the location of the levee
break from the Industrial Canal into the Lower Ninth Ward. (Photo
Credit: Rune Storesund) |
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| IN-DEPTH:
Professor Ray Seed (front) and others measure the scour as a result
of stormwater overtopping the flood protection wall. (Photo Credit:
Rune Storesund) |
CEE team
investigates levee failures in New Orleans
Preliminary findings uncover multiple breaches, poor construction
A team of 10 Berkeley engineers recently raced against time and reconstruction
efforts to conduct a preliminary investigation of the 370-mile levee
and floodwall system in New Orleans. The Katrina Recovery Task Force
(KRTF), comprised of CEE faculty and graduate students, looked for failures,
evidence of what caused the failures, and factors that made certain
spots vulnerable. Engineers found a dozen or more breaches.
“We saw evidence of overtopping where a 25-foot wall of water
came straight down over the levee like a waterfall and eroded out the
base of the levee,” says CEE professor and levee expert Ray Seed.
“But the three downtown levee breaks were failures of soil, not
overtopping” as the Army Corps of Engineers originally concluded.
“In one place, we found a floodgate left wide open.”
In some cases, the levees weren’t built down far enough into
stable soil, the team concluded. In others, thoughtless engineering
or piecemeal construction led to failures. “One of the things
we discovered was the levees were of different heights,” says
team member and CEE graduate student Rune Storesund. “Because
they weren’t consistent, your lowest point is your weak point.”
“You have to have a system that’s consistent,” adds
Seed.
Both Seed and Storesund say the biggest problem is that there’s
no single authority running the levee and floodwall system. “It’s
more an institutional issue than a geotechnical one,” says Seed.
With a shoestring budget of $29,000, KRTF is driven by scientific principle,
not financial incentive. “We have all the best people in the world
working for free,” says Seed. Other team members who traveled
to New Orleans included professors Robert Bea, Jonathan Bray, associate
professor Juan Pestana, and post-doctorate researcher Brian Collins.
KRTF findings have been featured in the New York Times, National
Public Radio, Washington Post, Newshour with Jim Lehrer,
San Francisco Chronicle, and San Jose Mercury News
among others.
A full report of the team’s initial findings could be available
as early as Wednesday, November 2. Seed says he expects the investigation
to take at least a year. The team, sponsored by CITRIS (Center for Information
Technology Research in the Interest of Society) and the National Science
Foundation, is one of several groups investigating the levee breaks.
The Army Corps of Engineers, the American Society of Civil Engineers,
and the State of Louisiana are conducting separate investigations.
To read more about the team’s trip, go to http://www.berkeley.edu/news/berkeleyan/2005/10/20_New_Orleans.shtml.
For more information about the team and its research, go to http://www.ce.berkeley.edu/~inkabi/KRTF/
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