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Malfeasance suspected in construction of levees

The head of a team of engineering experts told a US Senate committee on Wednesday that malfeasance during construction might have been one reason for the catastrophic failure of the levees that were supposed to protect New Orleans from hurricanes.

"These levees should have been expected to perform adequately at these levels if they had been designed and constructed properly," said Raymond Seed, a professor of civil engineering at the University of California, Berkeley.

"Not just human error was involved," Seed said. "There may have been malfeasance."

Seed, whose team was funded by the National Science Foundation, did not offer hard evidence to back up his accusation. But he said after the hearing that the team had been contacted by levee workers, contractors and, in some cases, widows of contractors who told stories of protective sheet pile being driven less deeply than plans called for and corners cut in choosing soils for construction, among other problems.

His group is trying to confirm the accounts, he said, and he cautioned that even if proved, they might not be a major contributing factor in the disaster, which killed 1,000 people and left 100,000 without homes.

As experts have noted, the levee specifications may not have been adequate in the first place. In particular, pilings may not have been driven deep enough to keep them from collapsing.

But the testimony raises new concerns in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina about the protection that New Orleans received from the 40-year US$458 million flood-control system.

The current state of repair might not protect the city from another serious storm, the engineers warned.

"Short term, without a storm, they are probably adequately safe," said Peter Nicholson, a professor of civil engineering at the University of Hawaii, who led a team of levee investigators for the American Society of Civil Engineers. "Certainly with a large storm, as we are not yet out of hurricane season, and certainly for next hurricane season, there is significant risk," Nicholson said.
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