Katrina Coverage

From this:

When the Texas construction firm AquaTerra Contracting began work on an Army Corps of Engineers hurricane protection project on New Orleans' West Bank, it encountered a serious problem: Its floodwalls wouldn't stand up straight in the mushy soil.

AquaTerra workers tried driving steel sheet piling down to the 55-foot depth the design required for the walls' foundation, company CEO Clay Zollars said. But the piling began to lean inward.

Zollars said the corps decided to nearly double the depth of the steel foundation to 105 feet. That didn't work either.

"Before we completed the wall, it began to lean and sink also," Zollars said. "The pilings were inadequate. The corps corrected that by installing some additional reinforcing steel in the concrete, but the wall still is leaning."

The top of one section of the 10-foot wall is more than a foot off the vertical, he said. AquaTerra is seeking $5 million it says the corps owes it for the extra work on the $11.1 million contract. Corps officials won't comment on the case because of the dispute.

The problems illustrate one of the basic obstacles to building reliable levees — or any heavy structure — in south Louisiana: It's a swamp.

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