The West Shore Lake Pontchartrain project is located in southeast Louisiana on the east-bank of the Mississippi River in St. Charles, St. John the Baptist, and St. James parishes in southeast Louisiana. The West Shore Lake Pontchartrain Chief’s report was published in June 2016 and the project received $760 million in funding in the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018.
Project Purpose & Features
More than 60,000 people in the three-parish study area have little to no hurricane risk reduction in place. Additionally, the dominant evacuation route for the New Orleans metropolitan area (I10) bisects the study area. During Hurricane Isaac, storm surge inundated approximately 7,000 homes and the interstate was submerged for several days slowing emergency response across the region. The Project will construct a 100-year level risk reduction system extending from the Bonnet Carre spillway to Garyville.
100-year risk reduction will be achieved by a variety of structural and non-structural features to include: levees, floodwalls, and pump stations.
Project Status
The first levee construction contract, WSLP-110 near Garyville, was awarded December 2022. WSLP-107 was awarded in March 2023. Construction on the third and most eastern levee reach, WSLP-101a, was awarded in April 2023. The fourth and fifth levee reach construction contracts, WSLP-108 and 104 respectively, were awarded in August 2023. WSLP-102, 105 and 106 were awarded in September 2023. These latest efforts follow previous construction of nine “land bridge” access roads from existing state highways and I-10 to the future levee alignment, two sand placement contracts preparing for levee construction in the WSLP-101/102/103 reaches, pile load test contracts, three stockpile contracts for sand and clay, and multiple mitigation bank awards. Levee construction contract awards are scheduled to continue through Summer 2024. Coordination efforts are taking place to design the project’s western end most efficiently to correspond with the State’s Maurepas Diversion project. The Maurepas Diversion is a swamp mitigation feature of the WSLP project to compensate for unavoidable impacts to swamp habitat. A Record of Decision in Jan. 2023 determined it will not only restore the ecosystem around the WSLP project but also increase its resiliency.