A levee will often fail to do its job and a breach may occur, where its foundations become weak and certain sections break away. In other cases, water travels over the crest of the levee, which is commonly referred to as “overtopping.” Additionally, surface erosion can gradually occur over time due to a combination of adverse weather conditions, such as extreme winds and high waters. To limit levee overtopping and minimize damage to the surrounding areas, levees are regularly reinforced with rocks or concrete to prevent breaches. Frequently, levee armoring protection as well as other flood bank and embankment protection solutions are utilized.
During Hurricane Katrina in 2005, numerous levee breaches occurred in Greater New Orleans. Many of these breaches were attributed to wave overtopping causing significant erosion of the landward side-slopes of the earthen levees. Since Katrina, various levee armoring systems have been evaluated to protect this landward side against severe hydraulic loading. HydroTurf® outperformed all known armoring systems that were evaluated. This specially engineered revetment solution armors levees for protection against the extreme hydraulic conditions of storm surges, wave overtopping, and river flooding.
HydroTurf® is also considerably less expensive to install than other hard armor revetment systems and flood bank protection applications that involve concrete and rock rip rap. Total installation costs can be up to 50 percent cheaper, and the construction and installation process is safer, faster and lower impact. Furthermore, since anchored TRM (Turf Reinforcement Mat) products regularly cost preservation crews more than $1,500 annually per acre to maintain, HydroTurf® can help lower unnecessary expenditures for TRM’s.