The has formally asked the to prevent contractors from rebuilding pumps at the during the 2024 hurricane season, which begins June 1.
According to a Corps spokesperson, , the contractor that built the three combination surge barrier-pumping stations at the ends of the 17th Street, Orleans Avenue and London Avenue canals, has asked the Corps for permission to permanently repair some of the pumps damaged by corrosion before the end of July, when the most active part of the hurricane season begins.
Corps spokesperson Ricky Boyett said the joint venture wants to finish work on two pumps at 17th Street by early July, and to work on a third one at the same pumping station during hurricane season.
Aerial view of the Permanent Canal Closure and Pump Station at the lakefront entrance of the 17th Street Canal. The Corps has agreed to not allow repairs at this and other stations during the upcoming hurricane season, as requested by the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East. (Google Earth)聽
He said the company felt doing the work on a single pump would be okay because the other pumps at the 17th Street Canal station have enough capacity to move all rainwater the canal can hold into the lake during a storm.
Repairs already are under way for two pumps at the 17th Street station and two at the London Avenue station.
Boyett said the Corps has not yet decided on whether to agree to the company鈥檚 request to work during hurricane season.
The company must also complete permanent repairs to 12 other pumps at the stations over the next two years.
This photo shows corrosion in a diffuser that is part of a pump at the London Avenue permanent canal closure and pump station. Permanent repairs to pumps at the London Avenue station and two others are expected to last at least two years. (Army Corps of Engineers)聽
Temporary repairs before the beginning of the 2023 hurricane season allowed the stations to operate at full capacity, but permanent fixes for the corrosion problem are taking longer to complete, in part because of the time it takes to manufacture parts.
The repairs will restore the pumps to their original expected 35-year lifetime, Boyett said. PCCP JV was paid $726 million to build the three pump stations, part of a strategy to both close off the interior New Orleans drainage canals from storm surge from Lake Pontchartrain, while allowing rainfall during storms to be pumped into the lake.聽
The first indication that some of the pumps were damaged showed up in May 2022, when a pump at the London Avenue station overheated and had to be taken out of service. Corrosion was identified as the problem in many of the pumps in February of 2023.聽聽
During a Thursday meeting of the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East board of directors, director Kelli Chandler said having the work underway during the hurricane season would be disruptive to her staff if they were attempting to operate the pumps in a storm.
She also said the construction work would require extra equipment to be kept in a storage yard outside floodwalls that would be in danger from a storm.
鈥淲e would rather be safe,鈥 she said. 鈥淚f it takes three off-seasons, then so be it, but we would not want to have anything out during hurricane season. The risk is just too high.鈥
鈥淚t鈥檚 beyond me that they think they can do this during hurricane season with the chaos that they make when they take these pumps apart,鈥 said Randall Noel, a member of the board from LaPlace and president of Reve Inc., a home construction company. 鈥淭here鈥檚 no way we need them doing it during hurricane season.鈥
The board unanimously voted to request the Corps to bar the contractor from working on the pumps during the hurricane season.聽
