The Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority has finished its largest barrier island restoration project, with the completion of the Terrebonne Basin Barrier Islands. The project restored one-thousand acres of barrier island habitat. Project manager April Newman says these islands will provide storm surge protection.
“Not only does it provide very important habitat for migrating birds and fisheries, it also protects the communities behind those barrier islands, it protects the fragile wetlands,” said Newman.
The 166-million dollar project used funds from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Newman says the barrier islands will help reduce storm surge and flooding for the mainland.
“Having some wetlands, having some barrier islands, having a little bit of any kind of land between you and landfall is going to weaken the hurricane by the time it gets to the communities,” said Newman.
Newman says the project utilized nearly nine million cubic yards of dredged sediment.
“Almost two years of dredging on and off, of course there was a lot of hurricanes along the way, we had to make some adjustments to our projects from hurricane impacts and other storm impacts but we persevered,” said Newman.
Newman says one of the islands, Trinity East Island, held up well to Hurricane Ida’s Category Four winds.
For more information:
https://coastal.la.gov/news/terrebonne-basin-barrier-island-and-beach-nourishment/
To hear interview with April Newman.
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