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Friday, February 03, 2012

Corps of Whingeneers

The T-P recently reported on the SLFPA-West attempting to get the Corps to follow their own specifications on project WBV-14d.2, the V-line levee floodwall south of Marerro. In the case of this project, the flood protection authority is concerned about bug holes (air pockets formed as concrete was poured and cured) and cracks in the wall.

As is to be expected, the Corps did their usual pooh-poohing. However, the T-P reporter (Paul Rioux) actually caught the Corps going further:
"Sami Mosrie, a corps senior project manager, said the corps is drafting a "white paper" to address some of the areas of disagreement.

He said corps officials have bent over backwards to respond to the levee authority's concerns about the floodwall and other projects, including new levees that authority inspectors suspect contain too much woody debris.

"This is over and above what we've ever done before in turning over projects," Mosrie said.

Oh boo hoo. Pity the poor Corps. All the nasty locals are picking on them trying make them follow their own specifications.

It's crud like this from the Corps that drives Federal Flood survivors like myself crazy. Are they so blind as to think they are the ones suffering? And are they seriously complaining about outside oversight on a $14 billion project meant to make up for the decades of incomplete and wrong work that led to hundreds of deaths? The idea of such oversight is to make sure the project gets done correctly and completely, down to the last crossing of T's. If the Corps gets inconvenienced because they can't follow their old "trust us and our contractors" way of doing business, I say "suck it up."

SLFPA-W commissioner Jerry Viera put it a little more diplomatically:
"Levee authority commissioner Jerry Viera said the authority is simply performing its due diligence to ensure the flood-control projects are built properly before taking over operation and maintenance responsibilities.

'In industry, it doesn't depend on the word of the contractor,' he said. 'It depends on the specifications and whether they've been met.'"

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