Katrina Memorial Park at New Ruskin College

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Lecture Notes: Katrina Memorial Park

I propose that at the lowest point in the City of New Orleans a Memorial Park be created in memory of those who perished in the Storm Katrina. At the center of the park there should be excavated a Lake Katrina to a depth of ten feet below the existing water table.

The storm drains of the city should be directed to this lake. Pumps can maintain the lake’s level during storms but the surrounding park can also be allowed to flood. (Reverse flow can maintain the lake during dry spells if needed.) In this manner the water can be used to recharge the city’s water table and stop the subsidence problem.

The park can have fields but the design should be to preserve the flora of the greater wetlands. Elevated walks and bridges through the park will allow for recreation. The park will be a large urban green zone for the residents of the city who will live in a taller, more dense housing elevated on piers, the “ground” floor being used for parking in the areas damaged by flooding. Modular construction will allow the buildings to move as single structures thus preventing cracking due to differential movement of the alluvial soils. (And the factory method will allow for cost savings sufficient to offset the higher costs of the monolithic foundations and prevent the expected corruption.)

The streets should be elevated up to the “first” floor and set on concrete bunkers or “tubes” through which the city’s utilities can be rerouted as the recharge of the city’s water table will cause differential movement of the utilities. Inside these utility tubes water, gas, and electric can be easily serviced. The sewage can be conducted through a separate tube structure which well serve as the foundation for the utility tube and the elevated street above. The street height to be two feet below the first floor to prevent run off.

Between the tubes and the surrounding garages, fill, taken from Lake Katrina and other sumps, can be used for additional green zones and plantings off the streets in front of the modern multi story modular buildings. The Lake and sumps can be shored with concrete panels which will maintain the soil structure while permitting the water to pass into the new water table. The utility tubes will gradually reach ground level at the height of three feet above Lake Pontchartrain.

Historically significant buildings can be jacked up to the height of the new streets to protect them from new flooding or the owners of these areas may choose to remain at ground level. In this way the new buildings may approach the old quarters of the city or kept only in the low lying areas around Katrina Memorial Park. The utility structures with their streets above will also act as additional levees within the city sectioning the city to prevent flooding of other areas on the other side of these elevated streets.

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