The Army Corps of Engineers is proposing a two billion dollar set of levee improvements in southeast Louisiana along a 30 mile stretch of the Upper Barataria levee system.
Corps Flood Risk Management Section Chief Travis Creel said a big part of the project involves the existing levee in St. Charles Parish, which is only six to seven feet tall.
“That existing levee would be improved initially to 14 feet and we would do additional levee lifts out to 50 years so the final levee heights would be 16 to 18 feet,” said Creel.
The improvements would build on the Magnolia Ridge levee system in St. Charles, connect to the existing Sunset Levee District in Des Allemands, create a gate structure across Bayou Des Allemands, and built a new levee system parallel to Highway 90 all the way to Raceland.
The intent is to provide 100-year storm level protection. Creel said the proposal also includes a request for funding to maintain that 100-year protection out to the next 50 years.
“The improvements will give us certainty that a storm up to a one percent would be protected,” said Creel.
The project has an estimated 1.3 rate of return per dollar.
The system would protect roughly 360,000 coastal residents from floods. Creel said the price of these levees is a bit higher than it used to be, but for good reason.
“The levee is designed to have some resiliency, with these new levee designs post Katrina where we design them to make sure the levees can be overtopped and not completely fail,” said Creel.
The project would need Congressional authorization and the state would have to front 35 percent of the cost. If approved construction would begin in 2023 and be completed in 2026.
Comments