Electrical systems a particular concern
As Gulf Coast cities and citizens scramble to recover from the mass flooding caused by Hurricane Katrina, the city of Providence is working to improve its defense against a similar disaster.
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Upgrading and repairing the Fox Point Hurricane Barrier – built in the 1960s to prevent storm surges from flooding downtown – has become the focal point of the city’s efforts to protect its streets from flood.
John D. Nickelson, Providence’s director of public works, said the city awarded a contract to C&E Engineering Partners Inc. on July 25. The Woonsocket-based company’s charge is to help the city find an electrical engineering company capable of designing upgrades to the 39-year-old electrical system.
More than 11,000 volts of electricity are needed to power the barrier’s five pumps that push water from the Providence River into Narragansett Bay. The electricity comes from underground cables emanating from the power grid (and not from Narragansett Electric’s adjacent power plant, as some may think), Nickelson said.
Nickelson noted that recent tests of the barrier by the Army Corps of Engineers determined that a new electrical system was needed. “(Yet) to have a problem, you would have to have the power grid fail at the same time as a catastrophic event, and the chances of that are pretty slim,” Nickelson said.
John J. Partridge, a Providence attorney who chaired a city commission created in 1997 to oversee improvements to the barrier, has said recent tests of the facility found that pump motors failed to start due to problems with the electrical system.
“If (the barrier) doesn’t work, the city may very well be flooded – it’s as simple as that,” said Partridge in a recent interview. Hurricanes in 1938 and 1954 brought surges of more than 20 feet to the city, causing tides to rise 8 feet above street level.
“If we ever had a major flood again, we’re looking at upward of $1 billion in damage,” Partridge estimated.
Nickelson maintains that the barrier is operational.
“Everything is redundant,” Nickelson said, “so were confident that (the barrier) will work.”
In the meantime, work is under way to replace an impeller inside the middle pump, which would bring the total number of operating pumps up to five. The city has spent more than $3 million on repairing the barrier in recent years, yet an undetermined sum is needed to fix the electrical system, Nickelson said.
“If the city had to pay for the whole thing, that would be a big nut,” Nickelson said, indicating that procuring the funds for the electric repairs will partially determine when the project begins.
Still, it’s unclear what modifications are required to bring the electrical system up to date, one reason the city has sought the expertise of outside consultants. “These big power-control systems are not something the city deals with every day,” Nickelson said.
The 35-foot barrier has three gates designed to close during hurricanes, and to block storm surges of more than 20 feet, according to Partridge. The barrier’s five pumps each have 3,500-horsepower motors designed to pump 3.2 million gallons per second from the river into the bay.
