The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recently awarded a contract to make improvements to a mitigation project located along the shoreline of the Manchac Wildlife Management Area in St. John the Baptist Parish, Louisiana.
This project will mitigate environmental impacts from the construction of the Lake Pontchartrain and Vicinity project in St. Charles, Orleans, Jefferson, and St. Bernard Parishes prior to Hurricane Katrina and the authorization of the Hurricane and Storm Damage Risk Reduction System.
In February, the Corps awarded the $16 million contract to Illinois-based Luhr Bros, Inc. The work will make improvements to five miles of existing shoreline protection, namely segmented rock breakwaters, which were constructed along the western shore of Lake Pontchartrain in 1994. This contract will add rock to the existing breakwaters raising them to an elevation of +3.0 feet and fill the gaps between them creating a continuous rock dike spanning the five mile length of the project.
Dredged material from the bottom of Lake Pontchartrain will then be pumped in between the existing shoreline and the new continuous rock dike to jump start 110 acres of marsh creation that should naturally develop vegetation. Construction of the project will reduce both further erosion of the land bridge between Lake Maurepas and Lake Pontchartrain and saltwater intrusion into a large freshwater pond, known as “The Prairie,” which is frequented by ducks.
The notice to proceed will be issued March 23, 2012. Construction will be completed in summer 2013.
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Dredging Today Staff, March 1, 2012