broadmoorimprovement.com

[prwalter]

Tell all your friends to come invest in Broadmoor property "where it doesn't flood"!

[prwalter]

After actually having read the TP article that Duffy referenced, I am struck with how critical Matt's efforts have been to get some dog-gone power generators into these pumping stations. And I should temper my comments about telling everyone that Broadmoor stayed dry. We should not gloat -- after all we know what it is like to get really wet when others did not. BUT we SHOULD use this as an opportunity to influence the process of getting generators into the pumping stations, b/c it may help MORE than just Broadmoor. I suspect we will find allies in Jefferson and in Uptown in that effort, especially after today.

[pwerner]

I drove on Washington Ave. today about 12:30 pm and noticed that the canal was very high. I could not see any of the sloped walls and the water was within a few feet of the top. I drove back around 3:30 pm and the water was down about 8 feet and I could once again see the sloped sides.
This was from a slow steady rain not one of our deluges. I am very concerned about the water reaching such heights.
I had no problem at my home on Napoleon. My wife did see flooding on Claiborne and on Carrollton earlier today.
_________________
Paul Werner

[startrekchess]

[prwalter]

Submitted this letter to the T-P Editors today. Hopefully they will print it:

"Dear Editors:

Friday’s front page article regarding local flooding states “some residents in the Carrollton and Broadmoor areas said water had gotten into their homes”, however the article does not offer a single example of a home in Broadmoor that flooded. (Perhaps the author needs to brush up on Broadmoor’s boundaries?) In fact, thanks in large part to the successful Army Corps of Engineers SELA project, which provided massive drainage improvements to Broadmoor and its vicinity, virtually all house flooding from rainfall in Broadmoor was effectively ended at least two years before Katrina. Recent studies by UNO bear this out with hard evidence. In fact Thursday’s rainfall produced virtually no street flooding in Broadmoor, apart from an area on the very edge of the neighborhood, where a storm drain was clogged on S. Claiborne near Robert street. Meanwhile the vast majority of Broadmoor remained “bone dry”. While we work hard to rebuild our community the last thing that we need is misinformation by the Times Picayune which erroneously suggests that the flooding of the past continues. Instead, we would hope that you would reiterate what some of our neighborhood association literature proclaims – “Broadmoor does not flood.”

As a side note there was a large photograph associated with this article whose caption indicates that it is of the “17th Street Canal”. In fact the photo is of the Washington Avenue/Palmetto Canal. The editors should have recognized this not only because Xavier University can be seen in the background, but also because the level of water in the photo was much closer to the top of the canal than it ever would have been allowed to rise in the 17th Street Canal. (Unlike the 17th Street Canal, the Washington/Palmetto canal has a concrete bottom.).

Please remember that these details really matter to many of your readers!"

[Abby]

I didn't even think once about moving my car to a neutral ground!

[startrekchess]

[McBride]

[Abby]

Thanks to everyone for being there during the period when I give up reality with all the images of water and mud flowing down inevitable channels. It's the day after Christmas - gone the anxiety and last minute family crazies. I am at the moment listening to the Met's debut of a Chinese opera (on Sirius) which is glorious and passionate and makes me happy to be alive. Bring on the muddy challenges....I can handle them...tell me what to do..

[startrekchess]

[Abby]

[startrekchess]

My writing buddies are more relegated to code applications. Googling is very useful if you connect the right word patterns first; it can be hideously frustrating as a general search. And some of the 'periodicals' you've previously admired were sent to me as links from the faithful.

Cough. The faithful, the few, the proud...

[McBride]

Dear Broadmoorians,

As I reported on my blog, I found the announcement below on the Pentagon's contract issuance press release page. Based on a similar notice on the New Orleans District Awards webpage (under "Service & Supply," with an award date of 12/22/06) I have concluded this is the long-awaited contract for purchase of the extra pumps at the floodgates. And it's a biggie: over $52 million for 19 pumps awarded to contractor MR Pittman of Harahan, LA. The original contract for 32 pumps from MWI of Deerfield Beach, FL was for $26.6 million.

According to the original synopsis for this contract, 11 pumps will be installed at 17th Street and 8 at London Avenue. The idea is to raise the total capacity at 17th St. to 7300 cubic feet per second (cfs) and the capacity at London Avenue to 4800 cfs. Some of the numbers don't quite work out when you do the math, so I'm not sure if those will be the real capacities. For example, the 11 pumps at 17th St are supposed to raise the rate from 5200 to 7300, for a rate of 190 cfs per pump. But the eight pumps at London Ave are supposed to raise the rate from 2800 to 4800, which works out to 250 cfs per pump. The official Corps webpage listing the floodgate pump capacities is here.

MR Pittman is the current prime construction contractor at the London Avenue floodgates. They are not a pump manufacturer. I do not know who is actually manufacturing the pumps.

Just a few weeks ago, the Corps issued a pre-solicitation notice for installation of the pumps at 17th St. It said that Boh Brothers would be doing the work.

Keep in mind that the Corps has already announced that, despite the verbiage in the announcement, the pumps won't actually be ready until about August 1 at the earliest, so they're already two months behind schedule.

Anyway, here's the announcement:

http://www.defenselink.mil/Contracts/Contract.aspx?ContractID=3408
M.R. Pittman Group L.L.C.*, Harahan, La., was awarded on Dec. 22, 2006, a $52,560,000 firm-fixed-price contract for Vertical Axial Flow Pump Systems for the 17th Street and London Avenue Canals. Work will be performed in New Orleans, La., and is expected to be completed by June 30, 2007. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the fiscal year. There were an unknown number of bids solicited via the World Wide Web on Nov. 5, 2006, and three bids were received. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New Orleans, La., is the reporting contract office (W912P8-07-C-0025).

Matt

[startrekchess]

Nice addition on your blog today, Matt.

Have you tried any of these for light reading on the vibration problems?

http://www.vibinst.org/ (home)

http://www.vibinst.org/vibezonenew_toc.htm#00000444 (old board, but some useful insights)

http://www.vibinst.org/forum/default.asp

http://maintenanceforums.com/eve/ubb.x

[McBride]

I don't often toot my own horn, but I think this is pretty damn important.

Please visit my blog today to read about the Potemkin Village that is Corps contracting for the floodgates. We've all been played for dupes when it comes to the floodgate pumps.

It appears the fix was in for who would get the job before the first bid solicitation was ever sent out in Jan, 06. And then when that company won the job (surprise, surprise), and deeply serious problems emerged, the Corps New Orleans District still tried to pull the same thing again in June, 06.

You should look at my post as part 2 of a two part story. Part 1 is the AP article to which I link, and which you will also find on page A-5 of today's Times-Picayune.

Sorry to be the bearer of more bad news,

Matt
http://fixthepumps.blogspot.com