The New Orleans Levees 3

[electricpete]

Does anyone have thoughts or links regarding the technical details of what caused the Levees to fail and how they can be repaired?

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[ctmtwilliams]

Geochem1st: You are thinking like a chemist not like a geologist! The lake is not in a closed drainage basin. As the lake fills with sediment the lake will continue to drain via the existing outflow on the east side through what is mapped as "The Rigolets". As DRC1 indicates the level of the lake will continue to remain at just above sea level.

 

[Prepakt1]

Prepakt,
the levees have been repaired on a temporary basis . These areas are still weak.Some seepage will occur due to lack of time for full compaction of the gravel and bag repairs.
Some suggestions or thoughts on the problem.

Place bentonite matting along the outside of the repaired areas it comes in 20mm thick rolls and cover with re-inforced flexible concrete matting anchored to some new piling.This will cut seepage and possible failure significantly.
At the beginning of this thread I mentioned rock filled barges.They should be available along with some heavy duty tugs.
The principle here is that at the first sign of seepage/ failure a barge should be moved into the failure area and the bottom blown out. If a large area is failing several barges can be used in a brick layer pattern and the ends between the barge and the shore filled by rock.This will hopefully reduce the water flow and permits repairs to proceed.



Intrusion Prepakt

http://www.marineconcrete.com