Tagged: Army Corps of Engineers

The staff at the Calcasieu Lock could be cut by half within the next 18 months because less federal money could be allocated to its operation and maintenance, the Army Corps of Engineers says.

Lockmaster Kevin Galley told a ports group meeting this past week that traffic will experience slowdowns in going through the lock.

The Army Corps of Engineers says a federal levee designed to protect Terrebonne Parish and parts of Lafourche Parish from storm flooding will cost $12.9 billion. State and local officials would have to come up with 35 percent, or up to $4.5 billion.

The plan released Friday includes 36 additional miles of levee, extending the Morganza project from U.S. 90 in Gibson to Louisiana Highway 1 in Lockport.

The corps plans a meeting about it Jan. 31 at the Houma Municipal Auditorium.

The Port of New Orleans is keeping a close eye on Mississippi River drought conditions to the north. So far, the port is conducting business as usual.

A federal appeals court has reversed itself and thrown out a judge's landmark ruling that the Army Corps of Engineers is liable for billions of dollars in damage that property owners blame on its maintenance of a New Orleans shipping channel.

The same three-judge panel from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that sided with plaintiffs earlier this year withdrew that decision Monday and ruled in the federal government's favor.

The panel's new opinion says the corps is completely insulated from liability by a provision of the Federal Tort Claims Act.