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 5,000 linear feet long and is comprised of 120 monoliths with a single gate and is supported by a foundation of 1,896 pipe piles with an average length of 114 feet and approximately 1,400 pairs of sheet piles with an average length of 70 feet. Additionally, we are constructing an emergency access road that will allow traffic to drive over the levee and bypass the floodgate on Highway 23 to reach the protected side of the levee if the floodgate is closed.