Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said a partnership agreement between the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) and the South Lafourche Levee District will dedicate $19.8 million in state surplus funds to make significant improvements to Lafourche Parish’s hurricane protection system.
The partnership agreement will allow the South Lafourche Levee District to make major improvements to the protection system, including elevating Highway 1 next to the Leon Theriot Lock complex from 12 to 15 feet, additional armoring and overtopping protection near pump stations, and the raising of levee heights throughout the system. The system has protected communities like Golden Meadow, Galliano, Larose and areas above from Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Gustav and Ike.
Louisiana coastal officials are expecting to spend more than $500 million in state and federal dollars on restoration projects in 2010 alone, which is more than ten times the amount spent just three years ago. From 2010 through 2013, state coastal planners estimate $1.5 billion in additional funding will be invested in coastal restoration and hurricane protection in the state.
Jindal highlighted a number of additional coastal restoration and hurricane protection projects that have recently been completed or are currently underway in the Lafourche Parish area.
In the past year in the Barataria Basin area, the Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection, and Restoration Act (CWPPRA) program rebuilt a barrier island at Pass Chaland, about 15 miles East of Grand Isle. CWPPRA also finished a project last March that built more than 35,000 feet of shoreline along Bayou Perot in the northern part of the Barataria Basin in an area that was losing 100 feet or more of shoreline every year.
A complete renovation is currently underway of East Grand Terre Island in the Barataria Basin, where nearly three linear miles of beach, 620 acres of beach and dunes and 450 acres of marsh are being built with $31 million dollars.
A total of $35 million in Coastal Impact Assistance Program (CIAP) funds have also been committed to constructing the elevated portion of Highway 1 from the newly-completed Leeville Bridge all the way to Fourchon.
In the upcoming year, the Barataria Basin will see the completion of the largest coastal restoration project in state history – the Dedicated Dredging on the Barataria Landbridge, which is combining $16 million in CWPPRA funds with $18 million in CIAP funds to restore an estimated 2000 acres of deteriorating marsh on the north end of Little Lake.
The state will also begin a $33 million CWPPRA project later this year that will rebuild an estimated 3,300 feet of beach and dunes west of Belle Pass, between the pass and East Timbalier Island.
Source: Louisiana Governor’s Office
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