U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) repaired and restored 220 miles of floodwalls and levees since September 2005. With a few exceptions, the New Orleans hurricane protection system is in equal or better condition than it was when Katrina hit. For example, levees and flood walls have been armored to protect against erosion from possible overtopping in several areas, and pumping stations are being storm proofed. Floodgates have been added at the outfall canals to protect against storm surge and a tree cutting program on existing levees for protection is ongoing. .
This work consisted of 59 separate construction projects, carried out by 26 Corps contractors 90% of them local. The Corps continues to construct stronger protection for New Orleans by engineering, constructing and improving storm and flood protection infrastructure to a 100 year protection level. This work includes higher levees, stronger floodwalls and greater interior drainage capacity, including:
Replacing failed I Wall design floodwalls with stronger Twall or L wall design floodwalls.
Reinforcing the most vulnerable undamaged I Walls and the surge protection closures.
In order to investigate the levee breakage and prevent them from reoccurring, the Corps commissioned an Interagency Performance Evaluation Task Force (IPET) composed of 150 subject matter experts from government, academia and industry to analyze the effects of Hurricane Katrina on the hurricane protection system and to develop a list of lessons learned which are leading to state of the art improvements in the engineering of a comprehensive hurricane protection system.
IPET findings and recommendations have been continually provided to the Corps’ task force since November 2005 and have been used to make levee repairs stronger and better. IPET findings helped the Corps in the assessment of weaknesses in the protection system and IPET results will also be used in design guidance to build future protection projects.