broadmoorimprovement.com

[startrekchess]

[McBride]

Fellow neighbors,

Jim Bolner, who is one of the legal movers and shakers in the neighborhood, has filed a lawsuit against the Corps this afternoon in federal court with me as the plaintiff.

After our April 27th presentation, I started filing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests with the Corps for key documents. Most of them, except for a couple of bid solicitations, were completely ignored, even after reminder emails in June and July. I finally got fed up and called Jim two weeks ago. He gladly took on my case pro bono.

What I'm really after is the operating manual for the gates. It was item number one on my first FOIA request. We've gotten contradictory signals on what's actually the process for closing those gates. I believe that the process today would involve a crane on the deck of the gates, since there are only two rental pumps and power units up there now. However, it could also involve lowering the gates with very tall cranes based outside the canal, which since they are so tall, might not be able to operate in any winds, even the 30 mph the one meant for trundling along the gates can supposedly operate in.

Or, they might drop the sheet piling on the Old Hammond Hwy. bridge, though I doubt that since the pumps on the west side of the site are pretty much ready.

In any case, there's not a lot of clarity. The two best sources of information are Sheila Grisset's article in the July 8th Times-Picayune:

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-6/115234050960150.xml&coll=1

and the letter sent to Jefferson Parish on June 14th. Some of the stuff in that letter may have been superceded by what's mentioned in the article, but we just don't know.

In any case, I'm very concerned that those gates (or pilings) could go down quite a long time before a storm approaches. I'm also concerned they could stay down for a very long time. The only information we have to compare to is Rita, and the piling stayed down for almost two days after that. I'm pretty sure that in addition to the inundation maps with depths (the effect), the people of this city also deserve to know the timing of the gate closure (the cause).

I'll keep you updated on the progress of the suit. If any of you know any lawyers that wish to file briefs in support of my petition (I don't know if that's possible, but the more the merrier), the stamped version of the suit is numbered 06-4082 and is assigned to Section D, Mag. 3.

Matt McBride

[startrekchess]

Matt, you should be commended for all your hard craft investment and dedicated use of time. Let me buy you a pizza sometime soon, Theo's sound good? By all means, bring the missus.

[McBride]

I visited the 17th Street Canal site again this afternoon.

I have some good news to report. There has been substantial progress on the east side pumps. One discharge manifold (the 9'-0" pipes into which all the pumps feed) on the Lake side of the gates is completely installed, and the other only requires one more piece to be complete. Also, the diesel power units for the six east side pumps have been placed on the power unit platform.

There are still elbows from the pumps to the 9'-0" manifolds to be installed. Today, they were using one of the elbows from the west side pumps to mark the east side manifold for cutting.

Also, there's a bunch more rental pumps sitting on Old Hammond Hwy, including a couple of brand new 30" pumps (manufacturing date: 8/06). There were eleven pumps last Sunday. Today, there's at least 18, and there's a bunch more power units (some of those power units may be for the extra permanent pumps that we won't have this storm season).

So all that's the good news. Now the hilariously bad news.

Today, I was taking pictures on the Lake side. Right now there's a barge with an excavator on it. I didn't think about it at the time, but that doesn't really make any sense. All the foundation work on the gates was done months ago, so why would there be an excavator anywhere?

I found out when I talked with a worker on his way out of the site. During our conversation, he told me some shocking news.

When the foundations underneath the gates at the bottom of the canal were placed, they were reinforced on either side using a method that combines the water and soil at the bottom of the canal with a binding agent, or grout. It's called soil mixing. You can read more about soil mixing at the webpage of the contractor doing the work:

http://www.haywardbaker.com/services/soil_mixing.htm

Normally, the grout is supposed to only stay in the area drilled by the auger. Unfortunately, the grout squirted out all over the existing poured concrete foundation, including into the 1.5' deep trench into which the bottoms of the gates come to rest when they are lowered. The grout hardened, completely filling the entire trench.

Guess what happened? Two things:

1) There is a single gate that has been lowered for over two months now. It is the one right in the center that has two rental pumps placed behind it. It is now cemented into the foundation and cannot be raised. Grout may have actually leaked inside the gate, making it much heavier than it was when it was lowered.

2) The remaining gates cannot be lowered because the trench is filled with grout. The Corps has had divers out at the site all week, helping to chisel out the trench. That's why the excavator is out there: to remove the grout. The trench will have to be completely repaired. As of today, the area under six gates has been cleared, leaving four gates that cannot be lowered. I personally wouldn't trust the fit of the gates into the trench until the Corps admits to the mistake publicly and gives an update on the foundation repairs.

Incidentally, Greg Breerwood mentioned this problem tangentially on WLAE's Road to Recovery on Thursday. He said that they were testing the gates and that there was cleaning going on. Of course, he didn't mention the fact that they had cemented one of the gates into the foundation two months ago, or that they couldn't seat the remaining ten at the bottom of the canal.

Odds and ends from my conversation with the worker:
a) There is a problem with one of the engines on the pumps on the west side.
b) He has heard the east side pumps might be hooked up as early as next week.
c) This is just from observation, but the rental pumps are not going up on the deck yet, as I reported a few days ago.
d) The worker said he personally tells his wife that the job will be not be finished until Christmas. Considering his inside knowledge of the job, I'd trust him.

I have had this grout-in-trench story confirmed by a very well placed source in the federal government. My source informed me that the same problem has occurred at the Orleans Avenue gates as well. The Corps has said they will have the trench cleared out at Orleans by Monday and at 17th Street by Tuesday.

This whole crazily incompetent incident raises a number of concerns:

1) The Corps' inspectors on the jobs are obviously doing a crummy job. The soil mixing has been done for months, but they only discovered this problem last week? That's awful, and speaks to very poor construction management.

2) How does the Corps plan to keep the trenches clear of all the normal debris and flotsam that floats down the canal every day? Will they send divers down before every lowering of the gates? We would know the answers if we had the operating and maintenance manual.

3) Finally (and most disturbingly) this means that the gates at 17th Street and Orleans Avenue were non-functional up until this problem was discovered, and remain so until the trenches are completely cleared and repaired (the repairs are necessary to assure a satisfactory fit betwen the gates and the trench). Water would have leaked through in the case of a storm surge, and non one would have known why. My God!

Matt

[jmuskratt]

[startrekchess]

[McBride]

Fox 8 News will be covering the grout problem on this evening's news. I don't know if anyone else will.

I strongly recommend everyone watch WLAE's Road to Recovery on Cox channel 14 every Thursday at 7 (repeats at 11 on Thursday and 7:30 on Sundays). They have a standing interview with a representative of the Corps every Thursday, as of three weeks ago.

Matt

[startrekchess]

[McBride]

No, it's not a call in, but since it's PBS, there's no commercials, so there 's enough time to listen to everything the Corps has to say and judge for yourself if they're lying or not. Considering there's very few outlets for information, I take anything I can get.

I watch it and tape it, but that's just me.

Matt

[startrekchess]

For example: http://www.fox8live.com/www/News/News.aspx (click on Broadcast Live Stream, I guess for tonight only) has like, a minute, on the grout and it's a whitewash, pretty much.

I much prefer the deep investigative work you do, Matt.

[McBride]

Broadmoorians,

I've posted the stuff below to a number of local Yahoo groups and to the forums on nola.com. I've emailed it to the local and national media and relevant government officials.

Matt

--->forwarded post--->

I wanted to provide an object lesson in how the Corps will say anything to deflect criticism.

As you know, the Corps has issued a number of reassurances about how the grout problem with the floodgate trenches has been solved, and also how it wasn't that big a deal to begin with.

Yesterday, person named "Gerry Preau" responded to one of my posts on the rebuild_lakeview board. Here's the relevant passage from his post:

"I checked with my contacts at the Corps and the problem that Matt
McBride writes about is true. Grout did get into the trench at the
bottom of the gates and was preventing the gates from seating fully.
However, the consequences he mentions are grossly over-stated.

"First, and most importantly, the problem has already been fixed, so this
is no longer a concern.

"Second, the gates would not have been watertight, but they would have
closed. They would have just leaked at the bottom. The small amount
of leakage could have been pumped out by the existing pumps. The Corps
would not have needed to drive sheet piles to totally block the Orleans
Canal. They would have just dealt with the small amount of leakage."


Matt here again...Keep in mind this is being passed along from the Corps themselves. I have learned that most Corps verbal statements are not worth the air into which they are uttered.

However, the Corps cannot be so cavalier and dismissive when dealing with other agencies, professionals and members of the Corps itself. And the way they do that most of the time is with the written word, which is far more binding and durable.

The Corps' operating manual for the gates has a lot to say on the importance of the gates seating in the trench (the Corps calls it a "sill"). The following are complete, unedited paragraphs from the manual. I'll have some commentary after the quotes:

"The gates at each of the closure structures are vertically framed needle gates. These gates distribute applied loads vertically to a bearing point near the top of the gate and to a point at the bottom of the gate. The bottom reaction occurs within a notch in the sill of the gate structure and the top reaction is at a bearing beam supported by the pile frame structure.

"At the London Avenue and Orleans Avenue Closure Structures, the sill is a sheet pile system comprised of two rows of sheet piles that extend between tie-in points on the east and west banks of the canal, diaphragms between the two rows of sheet piles that are also comprised of sheet piles, and a concrete cap at the top. The two rows of sheet piles resist the lateral load with a moment-resisting couple that results in tension in one row of sheets and compression in the other row. The diaphragms add additional stiffness to the system and the concrete cap ties the system together. The sill at the 17th Street Closure Structure also consists of two rows of sheet piles and the frame is contained within and restrained by the sill. The pile frame is contained within the sill."

"Because the notches in the sill structure provide the reaction for the bottom of the gates it is imperative that these notches be free of all foreign material and obstructions. The notches may fill with silt between the end of one hurricane season and the start of the next. It is also possible that other obstructions, such as tree limbs or trash, will get lodged in these notches."

"To ensure that the gate will properly seat in the notch, the notch should be checked at each structure by a diver. The diver should go along the entire length of each notch of the structure. A high pressure hose should be available for the diver to use to blow out silt that may have accumulated in the notches. The diver should locate foreign objects that may be in the notches and if they are small enough, he should remove them. If the diver encounters an object that is larger than he is capable of moving the diver should secure the object with cables that will allow it to be removed by a crane."

Matt here again... As you can see, the sills are extremely important. Much of the force from the storm surge is transmitted through the needle gates to the sills. If the gates were not resting in the sills, all that force still has to go somewhere. As the description says above, the only other place would be the upper bearing points, which are undoubtedly not designed to take all the force of a storm surge. In addition, a large torque would be developed on the framework of the gates because the force would be applied at a distance from the bottom of the channel, where the frame is attached to the foundation. All of this is backed up Corps regulations and design standards for design of such gates as well, plus just common sense. If you have a structure with two places to absorb force, and one of those places is not available, that would be worrisome. The gates could be shoved aside and fail.

So filling the sills and making them unavailable for seating of the gates is a serious consequence. If it weren't serious, would there be so much verbiage devoted to it in the manual? Heck, the Corps uses the word "imperative" in describing the importance of keeping the sills clear.

So, I'm sure the difference between the explanation given to "Gerry Preau" (a "little" leakage, which by the way, would mean there was that much less pumping capacity available for evacuating rainfall from the city) and the one the Corps gives to other professionals out of the public eye (it's imperative the sills be kept clear because they absorb a good chunk of the force from a storm surge) is pretty clear. I'll let you decide whether having the sills filled with grout was a serious problem worthy of public exposure or not.

Matt McBride

[jmuskratt]

So does the quote from the manual mean the lawsuit was successful in dislodging a copy from The Corps?
_________________
Adolph "Duffy" Voigt

[McBride]

Duffy,

I don't know if the lawsuit is what got the manual loose, but it does seem like an awfully big coincidence. The manual is dated July 24th. My suit was filed August 2nd. The manual was unofficially released August 8th. The timing itself sure looks like the suit had an affect.

Keep in mind, my suit seeks lots more than the manual, and this is not an official response from the Corps, but it's a step in the right direction.

Matt

[startrekchess]

WWL-TV @ 5pm just showed a bit about the Corps' "appropriation" of Bellaire Drive properties up in Lakeview: to the backdrop of houses being demolished, they interviewed a woman who said no one had been paid yet for those properties, though they'd been seized in May. While the Corps has "promised" to pay for relocation and replacement housing of equal stature, so far they haven't even ponied up for the mortgages.

Just think, that could've been us, with the BNOBC intent...

I find it - not quite - "hilarious" that seepage under the I-wall purportedly caused the whole of the damage to New Orleans, but the same seepage under the floodgates isn't a big deal. Surely nothing to write home about.

Now, please direct Mr. Preau's "contacts" to clarify for me why, if needing an watertight seal under the waters isn't crucial to the engineering design, the grout is even being used as part of the process?

"Because the notches in the sill structure provide the reaction for the bottom of the gates it is imperative that these notches be free of all foreign material and obstructions."

I suppose excess grout is not to be considered "foreign material"?

Please keep "grossly over-stating" your concerns for our city, Matt. I'm adding a pitcher of beer to that pizza I owe you; methinks you gonna need it.

[McBride]

Just this week, in a newsletter that can be found here:

http://www.mvn.usace.army.mil/hps/Status%20Report%20Newsletters/SRN_August8.pdf

it was announced that the Society of American Military Engineers (SAME), an organization made up of mostly Corps of Engineers employees, gave an award to Walter Baumy of the New Orleans District on May 31 (at a SAME convention here in New Orleans!) for work done from August 29 to June 1 in the wake of Katrina.

Putting aside the idea that it's one of the most politically tone deaf things that could be done in this city...

Check out the exact reason SAME gave the award:

“.. he oversaw the restoration ofmore than 169 miles of ravaged hurricane protection systems, 68 pumping stations and four water control structures. This $800 million construction program was executed in the 276 days between August 29, 2005, and June 1, 2006, when Hurricane Katrina struck and the start ofthe new hurricane season. Baumy was also personally involved in the engineering of improved designs ofthe earthen levees protecting the city of New Orleans, and in the stability improvements to miles of floodwall repairs.”

At the time of the award (and today, since nothing has changed since then), a total of three contracts for Corps work in pump stations had been awarded, and those were awarded just two weeks before the award was given.

There have been no contracts issued by the Corps for pump stations in Plaquemines and St. Bernard parishes, a single contract for roofing repairs in Jefferson Parish, and two contracts (out of 11) in Orleans for motor rewinding. That's it.

How insulting is it that members of the Corps are getting awards for work isn't done? Keep in mind that on June 1, none of the floodgate projects were done, and that today, the project at 17th Street is still months behind schedule. I thought awards were given for quality of work, but apparently, in Corps-world, it's just for quantity.

Matt