This summer, students with precarious grade point averages won't be the only ones spending time in the classroom.

As part of an initiative developed in cooperation with Louisiana State University, members of Louisiana levee boards will be attending a three-day course designed to educate them about proper levee construction and maintenance.

The curriculum for the "levee school" has not been finalized, but it is expected to also include topics such as the importance of wetlands restoration and primers on working closer with government agencies such as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. There are also plans to hire a coastal engineer to provide future technical advice to levee boards and parishes as needed.

While it is only a small step, any attempt to better educate levee board members about the logistics of levee maintenance will be worth it in the long run. Blame for what happened in New Orleans and the greater Gulf Coast during and after Hurricane Katrina spreads far higher than just the local levee boards, but improvements to readiness have to start somewhere. Armed with the best information and technical expertise, hopefully these officials can make better choices than those who got us where we were in the summer of 2005.

I'm sure that there are more than a few experts out there who wince when they look at the state of the United States' aging infrastructure, and would probably throttle local public officials if they could have them alone for five minutes. Much has already been said about the potential for problems in the nation's older dams and waterways, for example, but it is hard to get something done at the political level unless it is a response to a recent disaster. A little Remedial Civil Engineering is a start.

June 14 , 2007

One of the best plans that I have seen. The various levee boards in Louisiana have historically been political organizations that have been charged with technical reponsibilites that they have not always been prepared for. This may just be a start, but it is a good one.

David Tweedie
Fru-Con Construction Corp.
Southeast Regional Manager.