The need for an 8/29 Commission was underscored by the recent collapse of the I-35 bridge in Minnesota.

Across the country, public works under Federal purview and in most cases tied in some way to the Corps of Engineers are being trusted by a public that incorrectly assumes that someone is watching over those structures.

On 8/29, we learned that they weren’t. We cannot know that they will be without independent confirmation. Bridges and levees are not rocket science. That, incidentally, is a field for which commissions were chartered every time a few astronauts were lost.

The levee failures in New Orleans were the result of the same kind of faulty not-my-responsibility engineering, but with many more lives lost. An 8/29 commission is overdue.

FINALLY, someone else gets it. The Corps has become one of the most bloated, arrogant, irresponsible, and coddled agencies in the federal government. Oh, did I forget incompetent? For too long, they have held the public in thrall with their faux engineers’ bravado about being right — THEY are the engineers, and they have THE number! It has infuriated me since the levees failed after Katrina that they told the residents of New Orleans that they didn’t need flood insurance because their levees would hold. The culture of this organization comes straight from its parent — the US Army — and it caters to individual members of Congress by approving their projects and thereby building its fiefdom. It’s no wonder beneficial projects are undercut, stretched over too many years, over-budget, and underbuilt. My father, also an engineer, is no doubt spinning in his grave in outrage over the Corps’s refusal to be held accountable for its failures.

I propose that we create a new sub-department of HUD — or even a free-standing agency, like the EPA — a civilian agency charged with handling infrastructure and public works. It must be designed in such a way that Congress cannot interfere with its science-based priorities and cannot push vital projects off the back burner so they can “help” their districts. I know, I know: I’m an optimist. But the least we can do after all the revelations of ineffectiveness, shortcuts, and downright failure is dispense with the organization that has perpetrated them. Let them go back to building bridges for tanks and let us start dealing with the $1.2 trillion backlog of essential infrastructure.

The US Army Corps has YET to install seventeen foot pilings in the New Orleans levees. This being recommended by the Dutch following the 8/29 levee failures. In addition, engineers within the employ of the Corps admitted installing pumps which were known to be faulty as recently as last June. This is no longer negligence, this is putting thousands of people at risk knowingly and maliciously. This is the stuff that billion dollar class action suits are filed over and the US Army Corps holds an indefensible position from this tax-payers vantage point.

Y’all know about these companies on the (latest $50 Million) levee rebuild contract? The lead is a huge Dutch company while the last has the contract building bases and unexploded ordinance (UXO) disposal in Afghanistan and Iraq respectively.
http://www.arcadis-global.com/
http://www.bioengineering.com/index.html
http://www.hntb.com/
http://www.tetratech.com/portal/site/TetraTech/

To date I have emailed around 30 and phoned 10 members of Congress to convene The 8/29 Commission. I plan to cover all 50 states by the end of November.
What the Hell? Might as well, eh?
You can get the email form off of levees.org, our Relentless Catahoula Activists Protectors. (ReC.A.Ps)

Love and t’anks everyone.
Keep up The Faith, The Fight and The Flame!
écrasez l’infâme
Bourgeois Nievete

Let’s take a closer look at another case of “peer review,” the London Avenue canal load test.

The Corps has trumpeted their use of outside peer review to make sure that the results and the process of the test were above board.

Two outside experts were brought in at the behest of the East Bank levee board.

One of them, Ray Martin, is the former CEO of a firm called Schnabel Engineering headquartered in Virginia. He retired in 2001.

Among many other things Schnabel does for the Corps, they conducted some of the baseline geotechnical work on which the London Avenue testing is based in March, 2006. Their work, including a final report, can be found in the Appendix to the 17th Street canal Safe Water Level report, linked from here:

http://fixthepumps.blogspot.com/2007/05/walls.html

Over the last four years, Schnabel has billed the Corps for over $2.8 million in work.

The other “outside” expert, Bob Bachus, is also deeply connected to the Corps. His company, Geosyntec, has been the beneficiary of millions of dollars worth of contracts from the Corps Headquarters.

Other reviewers of the data during the load test included:

Noah Vroman, who is with the Corp’s Engineering Research and Development Center in Vicksburg, Miss.

Tom Brandon, a professor from Virginia Tech and member of the Corps’ IPET investigation (also did preliminary geotechnical work around the outfall canals last year in collaboration with Mr. Vroman, which can also be found in the 17th Street Canal SWL report appendix)

Neil Schwanz, a geotechnical engineer from the Corps’ St. Paul District.

And it gets worse…

I discovered a $68,866 task order on a multimillion dollar Corps engineering contract which has the following notation as its description:

“Peer Review for London Load Test Project - London Avenue, Orleans Parish, LA”

That is, the Corps paid a contractor that’s doing engineering work for them for “peer review.” It’s unclear if that “peer review” ever actually happened, since the task order was issued May 23rd with an expected completion date of July 17th. Of course, the load test didn’t start until August, but the work may have been ongoing before then.

The contract is this one:

http://www.mvn.usace.army.mil/ebs/Solicitations%5CW912P8-06-R-0215%5CAwardResults.pdf

It’s got a potential five year value of $90 million, with a guarantee of at least $30 million. Do you seriously think someone in line for $90 million is going to give the Corps an unvarnished opinion about the load test, or anything else for that matter?

Coincidentally, this is also the contract that is responsible for the preliminary engineering of the permanent pump stations (that’s the work that produced the recent maps showing the houses possibly getting knocked down on Bellaire):

http://www.nolaenvironmental.gov/nola_public_data/projects/usace_levee/docs/original/Static%20Displays%20August%2007%20IER5.pdf

The winner of the contract (from among 32 firms), the ECM-GEC joint venture, got $998,229 for that preliminary design work, which is ongoing.

Optimists or not, major reform is called for, starting with moving this kind of work outside of a single large government body that essentially employs most everybody in the business.

This really pisses me off! My father died of “Katrina related natural causes” because the ACOE flooded NOLA and no one could get to those stuck in the heat without water, who did not drown. This is what they are covering up. My father is not included in the “official” death count. Why did the National Guard not go house to house like in the past? Why were all my emails ignored? Why was I not allowed to come back and get him? There is a big cover up of the true number of people who died due to the negligence of the ACOE.

[…] about at Uncivil Engineers - best of new orleans blog, - Last Updated - 1 minutes ago    Follow This Story   Change Your […]

[…] about at Uncivil Engineers - best of new orleans blog, - Last Updated - 2 minutes ago    Follow This Story   Change Your […]

[…] was so pleased with ASCE’s work that they gave them awards before the panel issued its final report. And ASCE returned the favor in November of last year by giving Strock an ethics and leadership […]