World’s Biggest Water Pump Under Construction In New Orleans
The Army Corps of Engineers has broken ground on a serious construction project: a 570,000-litre-per-second, $US500 million pumping station charged with keeping the city of New Orleans a little, uh, dryer than it has been in the last few years.
The pump is just a small part of a larger $US14 billion plan to seal up New Orleans’ levees and bolster the city’s disaster preparedness, but it’s without a doubt the most visually impressive. PopSci’s thrown together a couple of diagrams to give us a sense of scale, and trust me, they’re necessary — see that little white thing next to the diesel engine? That’s a full-sized human being. There aren’t a whole lot of companies that make combustion engines that cartoonishly huge, so my money’s on something from a company like Wartsila-Sulzer, which makes engines like this to spin the props on ultramassive cargo ships, and conceivably, pumps:
At any rate, the pump is expected to be operational — and NOLA slightly safer — by 2011. More at [PopSci]
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Comments (AU Comments | US Comments)
wouldn’t it be cheaper just to move the city?
What city? ahahah they could just rebuild in the mountains with that money
Sounds like people who never lived or visited here talking.
Agree…if you have been to New Orleans and ventured anywhere out of the bourbon street haze, then it is impossible to not want to save this most important American city.
Well for start, moving the Superdome will be maybe 2 billion dollars just for that. Then other stuff will add up to maybe a trillon dollars give or take
You don’t have a clue!!!
Wow, thats some pump. And at some considerable cost. Im sure it will be money well spent cpnsidering the cost of clean up after the last flood.
This is for all of you “A” holes that don’t think New Orleans in worth the trouble.
Let me refresh your memories of how important this city is to the rest of the country.
People seem to forget about what happened to oil and gas prices after Katrina, they tripled and in some instances they quadrupled. Southeast Louisiana produces one third of this nations oil and gas, for you people in Rio Linda that 33%. What we (Louisianans) should do is block off or impose a hefty tax on the oil and gas leaving this state then we would not have to ask our incompetent government for the money.
On another note New Orleans is the nations fourth largest port. This area also has one of the largest concentrations of refineries and petrochemical plants in the nation. These plants make it possible for all of you idiots to live a civilized life every day. In addition many of these of these plants produce fertilizer for all of you mid west farmers.
I have a great idea, lets start drilling for oil off the cost of California, Florida and the East Coast, nah that won’t happen because you have a bunch of Obama socialist running the country.
Have a nice day,
E
Surely the American way is for a private corporation to be contracted to provide the flood protection. Much cheaper than using the Army; keeps government small; provides profit for shareholders!
You live in N.O., you pay for its poor location…