HAMMOND | An open flapgate to the drainage system on the east side of Kennedy Avenue is believed to have contributed to last month's massive flooding on the Borman Expressway, officials said Monday.

The flapgate is designed to open and close automatically in response to the level of the Little Calumet River, according to representatives of the Little Calumet River Basin Development Commission and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The flapgate didn't close as it should have to stop the flow of the rising river, they said. And a backup system north of the flapgate, known as a sluice gate, was not closed until Tuesday, five days after the Borman was closed to traffic.

"There is consensus that (the flapgate) was stuck open," said Dan Gardner, the commission's executive director. "The flapgate didn't function as needed, but it also didn't get a quick response."

The failure was multijurisdictional because there wasn't a clear understanding of who had to do what, he said.

"While (the flapgate) was draining INDOT's property and their interchange, it may be on a Hammond right of way," Gardner said.

The Indiana Department of Transportation therefore believed the flapgate was not its responsibility, he said.

Likewise, there might have been an assumption that the Army Corps should have done something, but the Army Corps is not responsible for the maintenance and operation of the flood system, he said.

Gardner was among those meeting Monday to explore the cause of the flooding that closed the Borman for several days in late August.

The group included representatives of the commission, the Army Corps, INDOT and Earth Tech Inc. A meeting with Hammond officials is scheduled for Thursday, Gardner said.

"Earth Tech has been hired by INDOT to do an assessment of what happened and why and what needs to be done so it never happens again," Gardner said. "INDOT has done a responsible thing by hiring this consultant. We're meeting as quickly as we can."

Gardner said he now believes breaches in the levee didn't contribute to the problem because the breaks didn't occur on the east side of Kennedy Avenue.

"It's my understanding that that water was confined to the west side of Kennedy Avenue," he said.

Gardner also ruled out any failure on the part of Hammond's pumping stations as a contributing factor because the city doesn't process runoff from the Borman.

Gardner said a final report is expected within weeks with an eye toward coordinating efforts in the short-term "so we can make sure if the rains come tomorrow, we've got the system up to par," he said.