Gigantic pipes protect New Orleans from disaster

One of the major cities affected by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, New Orleans is known for its great mix of cultural influences and the floods that have marked its history. Thus, it is not surprising that government officials have been committed to building instruments that can or at least mitigate the impact of rainfall.

Examples of such initiatives can be seen on 17th Street Canal, which has a station responsible for pumping water into Lake Pontchartrain. The huge machinery stands out not only for the large amount of pipes, but also for the shape they adopt, which may seem a little strange to the public.

The fact that the water outlets are turned upwards can be explained by the fact that they must always have some amount of liquid inside them. As a result, the equipment remains wet, which prevents it from burning when it is operated after spending a long time in the sun.

The purpose of the canal is to pump rainwater toward Lake Pontchartrain, which connects directly to the Gulf of Mexico. While this has some undesirable ecological consequences, the solution has the benefit of preventing much of the city from being flooded with rain. A curious fact about the place is that the bridge located on the lake held between 1956 and 2011 the title of the longest type building in the world, a position it lost to the Jiazhou Bay Bridge, built in China.

Via TecMundo