Periodic Levee Inspections, New York and New England

Levees provide important benefits to communities by reducing the risk of loss of life, reducing economic damages to the public and private sectors, and improving the natural environment. The US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) maintains a national inventory of levee systems and inspects and assesses about 2,500 levee systems nationwide. Inspections are crucial for determining the level of protection that levees, floodwalls, drainage culverts, and pump stations can provide in the event of flooding.

The USACE contracted e4sciences to perform periodic inspections of 10 levee systems in New York, New Jersey, and Vermont. The objective was to assess the general condition of the flood risk management projects based on measurements and visual inspection.

For each of the systems, e4sciences reviewed the operations and maintenance, operational adequacy, structural stability, and historical design criteria. The inspections identified levee safety issues that required repairs, monitoring, and future studies. In some cases, the inspections determined that the local sponsor had maintained the levee system to an acceptable level. In other cases, inspections identified places where levee subsidence or settling had diminished the level of protection to unacceptable levels, or where local sponsor maintenance needed to improve.

e4sciences received exceptional ratings for the care and diligence of the inspections.