March 2, 2016 - ASCE Oregon Geotechnical Group Dinner Meeting

Design and Construction Challenges:  A Case Study of New Orleans Levees after Hurricane Katrina

SPEAKER:  

• Mr James Hance, Vice President and CFO, Eustis Engineering, New Orleans, Louisiana  

BIOGRAPHY:  Jim Hance, P.E. is originally from Maryland but has been a resident of New Orleans for over 12 years.  Jim is a Vice President and CFO of Eustis Engineering. Eustis Engineering is a geotechnical engineering firm with five offices across the Louisiana-Mississippi Gulf Coast.  Jim has a dual role with the firm, and his responsibilities include managing engineering projects as a project manager and overseeing the financial management of the firm as the CFO.  He manages geotechnical services associated with commercial, industrial, environmental, and civil works projects.  He has been in the engineering business for 16 years and has gained extensive experience in the geotechnical designs of flood protection structures and coastal restoration projects.  Jim earned his Bachelor’s degree from Bucknell University, his Master’s degree in Geotechnical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and his MBA from Tulane.  He is a licensed professional engineer in Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.

ABSTRACT:  The extensive damage caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 ultimately resulted in an unprecedented investment in flood protection.  Prior to constructing the largest civil works project in U.S. history, the Corps of Engineers reevaluated the geotechnical design criteria and methodologies for flood protection.  Designs were an ongoing challenge, particularly at the interface between a levee and a floodwall. 

Concerns of excessive settlement and bending moments in steel H-piles along a levee system transition zone arose during the design phase of two hurricane protection projects.   At each project, up to 16-ft high earthen levees were proposed for construction at remote locations in the marsh, and these levees would tie into pile supported floodwalls.  Levee settlement was predicted to be several feet while floodwall settlement was estimated to be an inch or less.  This meant that a large “hard point” would develop at each of these levee system transition zones.  These large amounts of settlement and differential settlement had the potential to induce excessive bending moments in the steel H-piles supporting the walls.  The solution was an earthen preload program supplemented by geotechnical instrumentation.

At the end of the preload periods, the stacks were degraded, and the steel pile supported walls were constructed without the need for overly-conservative designs of steel pile sections or excessively deep pile tip embedments.  This design approach would not have been possible without the use of a detailed geotechnical instrumentation program to verify the magnitudes and rates of settlement and pore pressure response within the subsurface.  

Register online using the "Register Now!" button below or email Melinda Wegner at mwegner@cornforthconsultants.com by Friday, February 26th, 2016. 

Late registration will be available until noon on Monday, February 29th. However, a late surcharge fee of $5 will be applied to any registration made after Friday.

Due to issues beyond our control, we will not be able to cancel reservations within ten days of the dinner meeting.  Thank you for your understanding.