Volume 4, Number 1, June 2006

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE 38th JOINT MEETING OF THE
PANEL ON WIND AND SEISMIC EFFECTS
The 38th Joint Meeting of the U.S.-Japan Panel on Wind and Seismic Effects was held at the National
Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland during 15-17 May 2006 followed bythree-day technical site visits to New Orleans. The Meeting centered on eight Sessions: 1) GeotechnicalEngineering and Ground Motion; 2) Next-Generation Building and Infrastructure Systems; 3) Wind
Engineering; 4) Storm Surge and Tsunamis; 5) Recent Natural Disasters and Natural Disaster Management
Plan; 6) Dams; 7) Transportation Systems; and 8) Fire Performance of Structures. Twenty-nine papers
were presented during this meeting (15 from Japan and 14 from the US).
During the next 12 months, the Panel is planning six Task Committee Workshops:
a. Task Committee B, Next-Generation Building and Infrastructure Systems, Workshop on
Multi-Hazard Risk Reduction for Building Systems, January or February 2007, Hawaiib. Task Committee C, Dams, 4th US – Japan Workshop on Advanced Research for Dams, fall 2006,
Tsukuba, Japan
c. Task Committee D, Wind Engineering, 4th Workshop, New Challenges for Reduction ofHigh-Wind Disasters, 20-22 July 2006, Tsukuba
d. Task Committee G, Transportation Systems, 22nd US-Japan Bridge Engineering Workshop, fall2006, USAe. Task Committee H, Storm Surge and Tsunamis, 3rd Tsunami Workshop, July 2006, USA
f. Task Committee I, Fire Performance of Structures, Workshop on Fire Performance of Structures,
November 2006, Japan.

Delegation members, 38th US-Japan Joint Panel Meeting in front of NISTThe Panel adopted its 2nd Five-Year Strategic Plan that addresses the Panel’s mission and vision during
2006-2010 including a), evaluation of Panel’s Task Committees, b) encourage partnering opportunities
beyond the Task Committee member organizations and perform joint research, and c) more broadly
disseminate Panel’s activities. The manuscripts, Panel Resolutions, Task Committee Reports, and 2nd
Five-year Strategic Plan will be available in the Panel’s Proceedings, Wind and Seismic Effects with anexpected publication date of fall 2006. Information about the Panel is available at
http://www.pwri.go.jp/eng/ujnr/ujnr.htm.
During 18-20 May the delegation visited New Orleans meeting with officials from the Louisiana
Department of Transportation and Development, The Army Corps of Engineers, the New Orleans
Planning Commission and the Louisiana State University’s Hurricane Research Center. Discussions
centered on the extent of flooding and damages to infrastructure from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
The Hurricanes resulted in a large number of deaths and hundreds of thousands of displaced persons
and tremendous impact on the local economies. Approximately eighty percent of the city was flooded.
At the time of our visit we were told that approximately 50 percent of the population had returned.
New Orleans’ French Quarter and Garden Districts, on higher ground, were not flooded, but otherneighborhoods such as the 9th Ward were seriously flooded.

Flood destroyed residences in New Orleans’ Lower 9th Ward

The delegation visited several New Orleans neighborhoods including the Lower 9th Ward, originally acypress swamp, adjacent to the Industrial Canal and also neighborhoods adjacent to the 17th Street
Canal. Detailed information about these sites, performance of structures, key findings, andrecommendations are available from NIST’s report, Performance of Physical Structures in Hurricane
Katrina and Hurricane Rita: A Reconnaissance Report, NIST Technical Note 1476, June 2006. The
report is available online at: http://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/releases/hurricane_report060906.htm.
Highlights of each visit follow.
1.
LOUSIANA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION AND DEVELOPMENT(LADOTD) http://www.dotd.state.la.us.
Officials from the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (LADOTD) provided
the delegation with an overview of their response and recovery following the two disastrous
Hurricanes. LADOTD staff presented examples of infrastructure damage such as the Lake
Pontchartrain 1-10 Twin Span; flooding of many Parishes in New Orleans near the Inner Harbor
Navigation Channel; scour that undermined bridge approach slabs and bridge piers; wind damages tostructures such as electrical gear systems on vertical lift bridges and paint blasted from bridge
structures such as the Huey P. Long Bridge; 52 movable bridges were damaged; some swing spanbridges experienced flood debris lodged in their gear and motor systems. Some highlights from
LADOTD discussions follow.
Lake Pontchartrain I-10 Twin Span Bridge Repair. This 8.6 km (5.4 mi) monolithic twin-spanprestressed girder bridge experienced multiple span displacements on the north end of the east andwest bound roadways. LADOTD representatives described and showed photographs of spans that had

been uplifted and displaced into the water, and others where the alignment of spans was shifted.
Repairs were performed using a LADOTD design-build bid contract working with manyorganizations. One repair method involved the use of a self propelled jacking system on a barge torepair and reposition tens of bridge spans and hundreds of 300 ton concrete panels. The panels weretransported to site using the barges that were floated under the deck sections and lifted by hydraulicjacks. The realignment and repair of damaged spans on the east bound roadway were completed in 34
days, 11 days quicker than the original estimation and at a cost of $1.1 million. About 1.6 km (1 mi)of the westbound roadway was replaced with Acrow 700 1 Series bridging (modular spans replacing
the former military Bailey Bridge System) that were prefabricated and assembled at the site. Repairsof the eastbound lanes were completed in October 2005 and the westbound lanes in January 2006. The
Acrow bridge spans will be maintained for 3 years. During this time period plans will be developed
for a six lane bridge at a higher elevation (currently the bridges are about 4.3 m (14 ft) above meansea level) with enhanced vessel collision resistance, and a planned service-life of 100-years. The newbridge is planned to be 17 797 m (58 388 ft) long with a total roadway length of 1.9 km (1.2 mi).
Huey P. Long Bridge
The delegation was briefed about and visited LADOTD’s bridge truss widening project of the 70-year
old Huey P. Long Bridge to improve traffic flow. Work includes widening the existing 2.9 m (9 ft)
travel lanes to three 3.4 m (11 ft) lanes travel lanes in each direction, adding a 2.4 m (8 ft) outsideshoulder and 0.6 m (2 ft) offset inside shoulders. The project is estimated to cost $600 to $800
million.
John James Audubon Bridge, http://www.timedla.com/bridge/audubon.
The delegation was briefed on the John James Audubon 2 Bridge, a design-build project that will be
the longest cable-stayed bridge in North America. Its center span will be 482 m (1 583 ft) long withend spans of 197 m (647 ft). Its design life is 100-years. The bridge will cross the Mississippi river
between Natchez, Mississippi and Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It is constructed by Audubon Bridge
Constructors a joint venture of Flatiron Constructors, Granite Construction, and Parsons
Transportation Group. The $334 million project will include a 3.9 km (2.4 mi) long, four 3.7 m (12 ft)
lanes, 3 m (10 ft) shoulder, and approximately 19.2 km (12 mi) of approaches. The bridge isscheduled to be complete by summer 2010. The cable stays are semi-fan arranged parallel strand
system with corrosion protection. Wind tunnel testing included wind induced flutter and rain induced
vibrations.
2.
US ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS (CORPS).
Officials from the CORPS ‘Task-Force Hope’, New Orleans hosted the delegation to the 17th Street
Canal site and the 9th Ward Inner Harbor Navigation Canal and discussed the report, Interagency
Performance Evaluation Task Force (IPET). ‘Task Force Hope’ was created by the CORPS just after
Hurricane Katrina to manage the work to repair damages to levees and floodwalls and flood
protection systems, debris removal, and perform emergency response efforts. The actual work was
performed by the Corps and its contractors under Task Force Hope. IPET was created to determine
why specific infrastructure failed and to recommend remediation methods. The American Society of
Civil Engineers' External Review Panel (ERP) conducted a review of the IPET Report on 17th Street
Canal Levee Breach that is available at http://www.asce.org/static/hurricane/erp.cfm. New Orleans issurrounded by 560 km (350 mi) of levees and floodwalls, 71 pumping stations, and 4 gated outlets.
17th Street Canal.
According to the CORPS the 17th Street Canal was constructed of concrete I-wall and sheet steel
pilings on an earthen levee. In locations of the failed floodwalls the CORPS is installing an inverted“T Wall” by driving piling down to 15.8 m (52 ft); where previous piling were driven down to 5.2 m(17 ft). The existing I-Walls are being strengthened. When repairs are completed at the 17th Street
levees an additional 58 km (36 mi) of levees will be strengthened.
1
2

Reference Acrow Corporation of America http://www.acrowusa.com
Named after the famous artist of American birds.

17th Street Canal levee under new construction

Inner Harbor Navigation Canal (IHNC). The delegation visited the Inner Harbor Navigation Canaland Pumping Station. New Orleans has tens of pumping stations to remove rainwater from the city.
Levee breaches occurred along the IHNC. The CORPS is replacing 1 250 m (4 100 ft) of wall where
two breaches occurred. The CORPS is constructing a new Pumping Station at the IHNC to prevent
storm surge from entering the canal and permit existing pump stations to continue operations. Piles
are driven 32 m to 36.6 m (106 ft to 120 ft) below sea level. Eleven gates are installed. Capacity of thecanal lock is 82 m3s (1.3 M gpm) that will be tripled to 246 m3s (3.9 M gpm).

Panorama of IHNC Flood Gates and Pumping Station

These levees were constructed with concrete I-Wall and sheet steel pilings. The CORPS is replacing
failed I-Walls with inverted T-Walls. They are designed for heights of 4.9 m (16 ft) up from theprevious 3.4 m (11 ft). Sheet piling is drilled to 7 m (23 ft) below sea level to prevent water fromentering. A concrete pad base is constructed where H-Piles are welded to the sheet piles for each of
the steel reinforced monolith sections. Additionally, some levees will be raised and their backsides
armored with stone and concrete.
3.
NEW ORLEANS REGIONAL PLANNING COMMISSION (RPC)
http://www.norpc.org.
The Planning Commission serves metro New Orleans including its five Parishes and 1.3 million
residents. The Commission is managed by an elected 26 member Board of Governors from suchindustries as trucking, transit, airports, railroads, highways and from citizen members. The
Commission addresses economic development planning, coordinates highway and transport projects
such as air quality, traffic counting and monitoring, and urban area planning. The RPC performs
forecasts of business growth 25-years out to promote the competitiveness of the region by working
with Federal, State, parish, and municipal governments. Discussions centered on recovery following
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita to bring citizens back to New Orleans. RPC’s emphasis is on closely
working with the Federal Government for repairing and restoring New Orleans and on providing
incentives for citizens to return to New Orleans, improving communications with the community,
working to restore medical technologies at closed hospitals and reopening Tulane University’s
Engineering Program. RPC provides planning assistance to the community and demonstrating

competencies they feel may not have been appreciated by the Federal Emergency Management
Agency after the fall of the two Hurricanes. The Commission is:a. obtaining high resolutions images of the greater New Orleans region for performing detailed
analysis of land and transportation use in planning future growth, infrastructure maintenance,and economic development,b. working to clean-up and develop Brownfield sites into useful land for living and agriculture,c. encouraging the restoration of the wetlands that play an important role is protecting New
Orleans from flooding,d. organizing commercial neighborhood revitalization programs,
e. partnering with public and private organizations to become a green city by greater
conservation of energy and enhanced air quality, andf. developing inventories of traffic patterns and signals to facilitate traffic flow and identifying
equipment needs for remote site monitoring.

4.
LOUSIANA STATE UNIVERSITY HURRICANE RESEARCH CENTER(LSU/HRC) http://www.hurricane.lsu.edu.
The delegation was welcomed at the Hurricane Research Center where they discussed a series ofpresentations and visited HRC’s aerodynamic and boundary layer wind tunnel with capabilities forflow visualization, flow measurement, and force and pressure measurement. Presentations included:a. Overview of Hurricane Research and Katrina-Specific Research and Operations by Marc
Levitan, Director, LSU Hurricane Research Center. Discussions included HRC’s activities inhurricane frequency and intensity, modeling, hurricane impacts, preparedness, use of GIS forplanning and response activities, response (real-time data analysis for land fall hurricanes),
mitigation, education in disaster science and management. Hong Kong has used the New
Orleans Hurricane strikes as case studies in wind, flood, and evacuation modeling.
b. Katrina Storm Surge Modeling, Levee Failure Analysis and the Way Forward by Ivor van
Heerden, Director, Hurricane Public Health Center and Deputy Director LSU HRC. van
Heerden recently published, The Storm: What Went Wrong and Why During Hurricane
Katrina--the Inside Story from One Louisiana Scientist. Dr. van Heerden noted that many ofthe earth levees consisted of wood and organic matter from past Cyprus forests and peat andclays that can swell when saturated.
c. Development and Application of a Method for Hurricane Shelter Assessment/Operations
Planning for a New Orleans Hospital by James P. Gregg, Structural Engineer, HNTBCorporation. Gregg described a project in which they developed a shelter assessment andmitigation method by incorporating the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale; ASCE-7; and a flood,
wind, structural, and cladding analyses to assess a 60-year old hospital.
d. Flood Fatality Modeling and Hurricane Katrina by Ezra Boyd, Graduate Research Assistant.
Boyd discussed research to estimate the number of expected facilities for different flood
scenarios using three models 1) disaster mitigation (optimal configuration of levees to reduce
loss of life); 2) disaster planning (2004 hurricane Pam simulation), and 3) disaster response(real time support for search and rescue).
e. Storm Surge Damage to Bridges by Ayman Okeil, Assistant Professor of Civil andEngineering. Okeil assessed short- and medium-span bridges in the New Orleans area andconcluded there is great need to identify improved methods to absorb energy from storm
surge and wave actions.
f. Hurricane Effects on Long-span Bridges by Xianzhi Liu, Graduate Research Assistant, LSU.
Reviewed advanced bridge aerodynamics analysis that incorporates the results from past
research evaluation of the performance of bridges under similar conditions experienced from
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
g. Information Management for Hurricane Katrina Recovery by John Pine, Chair, Geography
and Anthropology and Director, LSU Disaster Science and Management Academic Programs.
Pine reviewed work in creating a substantial management information system of data,
photographs including satellite, reports, reference information for use by researchers,
community planners, and others.

h. Hurricane Katrina Environmental Impacts and Contamination by John Pardue, Director,
Louisiana Water Resources Research Institute. Pardue reviewed his analysis on levels ofcontaminates from chemicals and bacteria in floodwaters following Katrina. He noted that noagency has the responsibility for regulatory control of indoor contamination including mold, amajor problem in restoring damaged buildings. Landfills created to accommodate debris fromdamaged and destroyed residences and other buildings and structures may present
environmental problems. These landfills are not lined and are being filled with a wide rangeof hazardous materials including aerosols, paints, oils, and other chemicals that can leach into
the ground.
i. Hurricane Evacuations and Contraflow by Brian Wolshon, Associate Professor of Civil andEnvironmental Engineering. Prior to Hurricane George in 1998, New Orleans did not havecoordinated evacuation plans. Studies were performed following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita
to maximize traffic flows by improved scheduling and reducing traffic congestion at
contraflow nodes (loading points).
Note: Certain commercial entities, equipment, or materials are identified in this report in order to describe an
experimental procedure or concept properly. Such identification is not intended to imply recommendation or
endorsement no is it intended to imply that the entities, materials, or equipment are necessarily the best
available for the purpose.