Tag: River Birch Borrow Pits

Are the construction people at the NOLA area US Army Corp of Engineers that incompetent or simply on the take? We have more levee debris complete with dueling excavators.

We’ve periodically updated Matt McBride’s series Debris over at Fix the Pumps and today we note part 9 of his series was posted several months ago when the Corp of Engineers told the West Bank Levee builder Phylway Construction to stop using dirt from the River Birch Borrow Pits in their construction.  I mention this because Paul Rioux updated the continuing story of testing the nearly complete levee and what he reports today for the Times Picayune does not sound very promising as we find out the new levee contains things like water heaters and shopping carts. Now I could be sarcastic and suggest using old landfill material to construct levees to combat rising sea levels caused by global warming may be the wave of the future but I won’t.  I’ve been around construction too long to understand this kind of thing happens a good bit.  The owner of the project has to be vigilant to insure the project is built to their specifications and sometimes that includes busting the contractor’s chops when the specs are not followed. Unfortunately the Corp of Engineers appears to prefer the whitewash and coverup route and the residents over Marrero way are certain to suffer the impacts of that at a point in time in the future, likely after all the current players are long out of the game.

Through my time doing Slabbed I’ve seen the Corp of Engineers excoriated in the local blogosphere over levee issues that Hurricane Katrina laid bare.  There are some folks like Western Carolina Professor Rob Young that have the opinion the CoE was scapegoated and indeed Rob tells me he received death threats after writing such in the Times Picayune.  For my own part the relationship we have with the CoE here on the coast does not include any flood protection because we simply do not fill in marshes and develop them like happens in metro NOLA.  That avoids the issue of depending on levees that inherently will fail over a long enough timeline altogether. That said I also watched the CoE steer post Katrina cleanup/demolition work to politically connected out-of-state contractors after Katrina so I well understand the agency is politicized and that is not a good thing for engineering IMHO.  The fact the Corps of Engineers was caught on video trying to coverup the problems revealed by the levee testing just simply illustrates the problems inside the CoE that has made it fair game for majority of the withering criticism leveled at it since Katrina.

So if the Corps of Engineers in bed with the contractor we better find out a bit more about the contractor, Phylway Construction.  First off they have been in business for a while and are properly licensed. According to their website: Continue reading “Are the construction people at the NOLA area US Army Corp of Engineers that incompetent or simply on the take? We have more levee debris complete with dueling excavators.”

Matt at Fix the Pumps keeps up the debris in the levee drumbeat. Logs being uncovered not to be confused with Shinola….

Late last month Matt at Fix the Pumps filed part 8 of his series Debris which documents logs being used as levee fill that go well beyond the project specifications.  We’ve been steering readers to this series of posts as the dirt appears to be coming from Team River Birch owned pits and it now appears the problems are most manifested by one contractor.  Matt’s latest installment features reporting from Channel 4 as they and the T-P’s Paul Rioux are feeding well at the table of facts Matt has constructed on his blog.  In fact Rioux’s latest installment on this for the Times Picayune is today’s feature story and is also well worth the read.

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Matt at Fix the Pumps finds woody debris in the new levees and a Fred Heebe in the woodpile.

Folks there are few more dedicated niche bloggers in Metro NOLA than Matt McBride over at Fix the Pumps.  Matt is a tireless advocate for properly constructed flood protection for New Orleans metro and in a 3 part series details the problems the Army Corps of Engineers is having with contractors delivering dirt for levee construction that is filled with woody debris, which is unsuitable levee material. Naturally my interest was piqued when the name Fred Heebe was mentioned in part 1 of Matt’s series Debris.  Here is a snippet:

And yes, the “River Birch” mentioned here is the same River Birch landfill that is the center of a wide-ranging federal investigation into corruption within Jefferson Parish politics. That investigation has already led to the resignation of three top officials within Jefferson Parish, including the parish president, Aaron Broussard. The Corps is approved to get borrow material from four River Continue reading “Matt at Fix the Pumps finds woody debris in the new levees and a Fred Heebe in the woodpile.”