Construction Week

摘要

The Army Corps of Engineers has opened the Bonnet Carre Spillway in Louisiana to manage early seasonal floods on the Mississippi River. The Corps opens the spillway when it appears the river's flow rate could exceed 1.25 million cfs in New Orleans. Without the release, the volume would have reached 1.4 million cfs and 18.2 ft. The river was 15.7 ft on March 8, just below the 17-ft flood stage at the gauge in New Orleans. Levees there are designed to protect up to 20 ft. By March 14, a total of 148 of the spillway's 350 bays had been opened, diverting about 140,000 cfs. The Corps expects to keep the spillway open for about three weeks, but it doesn't expect to open other flood control structures upriver.