Circle Jerk

It looks as if all parties involved in the design of New Orleans protections levees were negligent.

First Eustis Engineering averages out their test boring results over an area over a mile long, missing some esspecially weak soils in some spots. Any engineer knows you always design for the worst case scenario and then add a safety factor. Second, the design engineers used soil samples with a higher horizontal strength instead of weaker soils found at a lower level. The weaker soils would have required deeper piles. Third, when the New Orleans office of the Corps of Engineers reviewed the work, it accepted it without question. According to the forensic engineers, all these mistakes were fundemental errors that prudent engineers should not have made.

Lastly, the Vicksburg office the Corps of Engineers raised questions about the design of the levees but was assured by the New Orleans office the the engineering "judgements" were adequate. The Vicksburg office then dropped the issue without asking the New Orleans to provide data to back-up their assersions.

If this investigation continues to uncover more mismanagement like this, a few engineers may practice engineering for not much longer as well as the federal government might be paying huge damages as a result of quite a few law suites.

Via NOLA.com

Cookie-Cutter?

ThermaSAVE has developed a product and construction method to build what it claims to be disaster-proof. Its houses may be resistant to termites, Category 5 hurricane winds and earthquakes but can it keep out flood waters? I have my doubts.

If Mr. Haddock is correct and a turnkey house can be built for $25,000 in about a week, these dwellings may have a future in New Orleans but first I have few questions:

1. Do the Category 5 hurricane wind resistance apply to the entire assembly or just the components? Strong walls are no good if the corners come apart.

2. Does the $25,000 estimate include the foundation and does it take into consideration New Orleans notoriously weak soils?

3. Can the design of the units accomodate New Orleans unique vernacular style of architecture?

4. Will ThermaSAVE allow for different designers to be involved in the building process in order to avoid the cookie-cutter effect of other planned communities and shunned by so many New Orleans residents?

5. Do ThermaSAVE panels accomodate future improvements in electrical wiring imbedded in insulated walls?

6. Is their product suited to resist moisture-intrusion as a result of being in a hot-humid climate?

I think architects and builders might want to take a look at this product to better determine if it is suited to our environment.

Jack-O-Lantern

The New Orleans Recovery Commission has come up with a plan to facilitate the revitalization of the city's neighborhoods but it has come under some legitimate criticism. According to the plan, residents will be given a time period of one to three years to move back to their neighborhoods. After that time period has passed, a commission will determine whether certain neighborhoods will survive or be razed based on the population of that neighborhood.

The problem is as stated by Janet Howard of the Bureau of Governmental Research, it will be difficult to ask people to relocate knowing that their houses may be torn down. I think this effort will require some decision from above as to what the future extents of the city as well as citizens given some assurances that their houses will survive if it is inside the limits of the city to remain. After the pre-determined period of resettlement has passed, those dwellings that are not inhabited can either be condemned and razed or converted to some other used. This brings up one concern of ULI that's called the "jack-o-lantern" effect, whereby viable neighborhoods are surrounded by blighted neighborhoods. Let's not worry about the "jack-o-lantern" effect, just the blighted neighborhoods. We all need to realize that the revitalization will not be perfect, it just has to be workable.

I think people are trying too hard to solve all the problems at once. We need to come up with some kind of plan to move forward yet maintain a certain amount to flexibility in order to deal with lifes uncertaintees

I Want My Tax Breaks

Congress has passed a bill giving tax breaks to businesses in the area but, so far, no tax breaks to individuals as has been pushed by Rep. Bobby Jindal (R) LA.

I would like to see some action on the Katrina Economic Opportunity Act (HR 3987).

Myth Buster

Paul over at Wizbang makes a good point about New Orleans flooding not because it is below sea level (only parts of the city are), but because of what was essentially a dam break.

Read the whole thing.

For a elevation map of New Orleans, go here.

Twelve Steps

I. D. Reilly echos my thought exactly.

Who's On First, What's On Second, I Don't Know's On Third

The Orleans Levee Board had no idea that maintenance of the levees was its responsibility. In fact we find out that a local contractor had blocked access for the Corps of Engineers to the breach in the 17th St. Canal to do repairs.

Now I'm not a lawyer, but can charges be brought to the members of the Levee Board for misfeasance of office?

CORRECTION: It was not a contractor but a levee board official:

a report that the Army Corps of Engineers was blocked by a local levee official from trying to fill breaches in the London Avenue Canal.

Via nola.com.

Pumps? What Pumps?

The taxpayers of this state paid $26 million so that this doesn't happen again. Well today we found that that money bought us exactly nothing as this same underpass flooded once again, only this time after only 1.6" of rain.

I hope our new levees perform better than our new "state-of-the-art" pumps.

UPDATE: It turns out that the pumps were not turned on till after the roadway flooded. Is this the kind of efficiency we can expect from government?

Levee or Levy

The federal government has now said they will rebuild the levee system around the New Orleans area.

Lets hope we get a real dike and not the same old levee with a brand new levy.

Another Reason to Hate the Ranch House

The Southern Pine Council is recommending that new houses be built with raised floors like they used to be constructed before the pre-war building boom. Needless to say, I never like the ranch house due to its penchant for being pedestrian and lack of craftsmanship.

The popularity of the ranch house is due in part because of the cost savings involved by substituting materials cost for labor cost as a result of the changing labor market immediately after World War II. Rule of thumb is that labor cost is twice that of materials cost. When developers needed to build thousands of housing units in a short period of time and for families on a limited budget, the ranch house built on a concrete slab became the construction method of choice for many decades. The ranch style further grew in popularity as it became a symbol of middle-class upward mobility and the raised cottage came to symbolize the old neighborhood.

Now we're seeing a resurgence of the raised cottage in upper-scaled neighborhoods with the resurgance of the popularity of the Craftsman style. Although I don't expect to see new Craftsman style developments popping up around the city, I do encourage developers to study the local Creole cottages. While not possessing the level of craftsmanship present in the Craftsman cottage, builders need to be sensitive to materials, proportions and details. With a little more work and attention to detail, these Creole cottages that were dammaged or destroyed by Hurrican Katrina can be recreated to bring back the charm that once existed in these New Orleans neighborhoods.