Documentary Description
Five years after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, the levees
have been repaired and the floodwalls have been patched. But for the
people of New Orleans the story hasn't ended. Engineers are now
completely rethinking flood protection in New Orleans.
They're taking the levees off the front line and building massive new
structures designed to encircle the city — protecting against the
fiercest
storms Mother Nature's got. And the cutting-edge engineering doesn't
stop
with the barrier. Inside the city, designers are radically re-inventing
how
to build hurricane proof homes.
When complete, this will be the world's strongest hurricane
protection
system. It features two keystone projects — the world's largest Storm
Surge Barrier and the world's most powerful Pump Station. Even the
levees are
getting an upgrade — all 350 miles of them. No one has ever attempted to
build such a complex system or such massive structures in such a short
amount of time. But if they can do it, this will be the first hurricane
system
strong enough to go head to head with a category 5 storm — and win.
The World's Largest Storm Surge Barrier
Two miles long and 32 feet high, the wall is built on a foundation of
thousands of massive 6-foot diameter concrete piles driven 130 feet into
the lakebed. And it's not just tall and strong — it's thick. 600 angled
'batter' piles reinforce the backside of the wall, giving it a 100-foot
wide footprint. Massive concrete caps are placed on top of the wall to
bring its final height to 26 feet above high tide. This wall will trump
the current largest storm barrier — the Oosterschelde Barrier in the
Netherlands — unrivaled for the past 25 years.
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