Following a series of setbacks during Hurricane Katrina, the USACE implemented several short term solutions, including a new water management plan, seepage barrier as well as several smaller culverts. As part of the recent effort to improve the water management system, the contractor hired to work on the dike rehabilitation, Harry Pepper and Associates, reached out to SPS Industrial, a logistics and supply company, to find a cost-effective yet long term solution for the bypass system.
This system consisted of three inch diameter runs of pipe that were each LF. The cutoff wall, a critical design feature in the dike rehabilitation, will minimize existing internal erosion, known as "piping," and prevent further damage to the internal structure of the dike. A mile stretch from Port Mayaca south to Belle Glade that is considered the most vulnerable section of the mile dike is the first wall section to be built.
The work began in and is scheduled for completion in BFC for the first of four 4 major task orders to construct a total of 10 -miles of the planned cutoff wall that runs vertically from the dike crest to a depth of nearly 80 feet in certain locations. Geosyntec is responsible for development of specialized work plans; design and certification of the work platform; coordination of local and state permitting of the construction activities; management of the USACE Quality Control System QCS ; development and implementation of a project environmental monitoring program; provision of technical guidance during the cutoff wall mix design; monitoring the field and laboratory quality control testing program; and management of all aspects of the CQC program for the USACE.
Then during former Gov. Rick Scott's tenure, U. Sugar and the Scott-appointed South Florida Water Management District board snuffed out the option to complete the deal years later. I'm no Realtor, but I also bet all that money could have bought all the homes of the people whose lives were in danger in the lake's potential flood zone, and then new homes could have been built in safe areas for them.
During the tour, I stood on top of the dike about two miles east of Clewiston. I faced south, toward the Everglades. From my vantage point at that elevation, I could see about 10 miles to the horizon. The cut-off wall has been touted as a lifesaver for the residents of the Glades communities. No argument here, except, from where I stood, the nearest homes were about two miles to the west and five miles to the east. The only thing before me from the lake's southern shore and State Road 80 to the horizon was tall, green, lush stalks of sugar cane.
So that is what is protected? If the Corps' quality of work is as good as it was when the agency built the first Herbert Hoover Dike, the cut-off wall won't leak for about 75 more years, if at all.
Any notion of water flowing one day from Lake Okeechobee south into the Everglades in any kind of volume more than what the narrow, shallow Miami Canal can carry is simply a dream. The Corps followed marching orders authorized by Congress.
However, it is clear to me the money would have been much better spent by tearing down several miles of the southern dike, building a shallow flow-way through what is presently sugar land and trying to restore a small portion of the natural movement of water between Orlando and the Everglades which has been interrupted for about years now.
If the Corps was directed to construct a project like that, I have full confidence they could get it done. The cutoff wall is constructed by the self-hardening slurry method, which includes excavation through the embankment fill and soil with mechanical and hydraulic clamshells and in the limestone rock and sand with a hydromill cutter to a depth up to 78 ft from the top of the levee.
Acceptance testing of the cutoff wall is performed at 28 days through verification drilling, which is specified as seven borings per 1, LF of cutoff wall. Acceptance testing includes: in-situ permeability testing, unconfined compressive strength testing of core samples and borehole televiewer survey.
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