Local officials hope a major levee project along the central Louisiana coast is one step closer to receiving federal funding.
Morganza to the Gulf is a 98-mile levee project that, if completed, would curl around several communities and protect them from hurricane storm surges. It’s one of the biggest and most expensive projects in Louisiana’s Coastal Master Plan.
So far, only local money has been spent on the project. Federal funding will likely be needed to complete the project and bring it up to federal protection standards. That was estimated to cost about $10.3 billion in 2014. Congress has several times authorized the project, but has not yet sent any money to the state.
In order to make Morganza to the Gulf more enticing to the feds, local officials have spent several months looking for ways to make it cheaper.
“That was the bottom-line assignment,” says Mark Wingate, Deputy District Engineer for Project Management at the New Orleans office of the Army Corps of Engineers, “Can we reduce project costs?”
Wingate says the Army Corps, as well as state and levee district officials, spent months working to reduce the price tag to the $5.5 - $6 billion range. Wingate made the announcement at the monthly meeting of the Coastal Restoration and Protection Authority Board meeting.
Officials will meet with Louisiana Congressman Garret Graves on Thursday to start talking about next steps.
Support for the Coastal Desk comes from the Greater New Orleans Foundation, the Walton Family Foundation, and local listeners.
