Saturday, December 10, 2005

Katrina, Levees, and City Bicycle Plans

This week I received my invitation to the annual meeting to discuss the city’s Bicycle Plan. It’s in January. If you live locally and want details leave me a comment. I can pass that information along to you. It includes free pizza.

Every year at this meeting for the past 3? 5? 7? more? they tell us that the Army Corps of Engineers is going to raise the river levees to accommodate 100 year flood models.

Every year they promise that this levee raising will require tearing up substantial portions of the local bike path, rendering them useless.

Every year they use this levee raising project as a reason for not completing pavement on effected portions of the local bike path.

One of these sections of incomplete trail includes a portion of my preferred (safest) route to work.

Because this section of trail is unpaved they don’t perform winter maintenance on it.

Because they don’t perform winter maintenance on it I get to settle for a choice of four out-of-the-way, snow and ice affected 20,000 to 40,000 cars-per-day roads to cross the river on.

I think I’ll ask them this year if the city or the Army has learned anything about prioritizing levee reinforcement projects in a post-Katrina world.

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