The Morganza-to-the-Gulf Hurricane protection project, which will protect Lafourche and Terrebonne Parishes, is awarded 12.46 million dollars by the Corps of Engineers.
Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority head Chip Kline said the project as a whole will cost three billion dollars, but it’s a good start.
“This is actually the first time that the federal government has actually appropriated any money for this massive hurricane protection system,” said Kline.
The Morganza-to-the-Gulf project was initially forecasted to cost 10 billion dollars, but that price has come down to three billion after the cost was updated in 2019.
Kline said because the feds have taken so long to appreciate the project’s significance the state has already moved ahead with constructing parts of it.
“Since 2007 between state and local revenue we have allocated about 600 million dollars to construct components of this system,” said Kline.
Kline said it’s great to see this system, which protects tens of thousands of homes, get some attention after watching the New Orleans Levee System get fully funded.
“It is a project that has been consistently left out of appreciation and emergency supplemental going back to 2005,” said Kline.
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