The US Army Corps of Engineers is moving forth on awarding New Orleans levee repair contracts ahead of a 2011 deadline for upgrades–despite a new analysis that suggests rotational failure is still a risk. The new analysis found that geosynthetic support may be 20 feet short of what’s needed to prevent a 100-year-storm event rotational failure. But experts point out that no earthen levee has ever failed in the manner the new, geometry-based computer model suggests.

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