Protecting the Citizens of New Orleans

Building for Future Protection

The southern portion of Plaquemines Parish was the first area to be hit by Hurricane Katrina, and because of its many low-lying areas, experienced severe flooding of up-to 26 feet in some areas. Although most of Plaquemines has been outside the federal hurricane protection system, the Army Corps of Engineers and Plaquemines Parish signed an agreement valued at $1.4 billion in 2012 to federalize and raise the levee system to meet the Corps’ 100-year level of risk reduction for a storm surge that has a 1% chance of occurring.

Project Details

As part of a joint venture, we are replacing an earthen levee with a new T-Wall levee on the west bank of the Mississippi River. The new levee is 6,879 linear feet long and is comprised of 118 monoliths with three gates and is supported by a foundation of 2,545 pipe piles with an average length of 114 feet and approximately 2,000 pairs of sheet piles with an average length of 70 feet. A portion of this levee runs between Chevron’s Oak Point Plant and the river, where Chevron has docking facilities and overhead pipelines for loading and unloading ships. Working near this sensitive infrastructure required increased coordination, security, and vibration monitoring.