HSDRRS levee lift General Re-evaluation Reports signed

USACE New Orleans District
Published Dec. 21, 2021

NEW ORLEANS – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Director of Civil Works recently signed the final Lake Pontchartrain & Vicinity and West Bank & Vicinity General Re-evaluation Reports.

Alvin Lee, the Director of Civil Works, recommended the reports be transmitted to Congress for extension of both project’s existing authority under the Water Resources Reform and Development Act of 2014.

The final reports each recommend conducting periodic levee lifts and structure modifications so the Hurricane and Storm Damage Risk Reduction System around the greater New Orleans area will reduce the risk of flooding associated with a 1 percent annual exceedance probability storm event through the year 2078.

Lake Pontchartrain & Vicinity (LPV): The recommended plan consists of 50 miles of levee lifts and 3 miles of floodwall replacements, or new floodwalls, at total project cost of approximately $1.24 billion.

West Bank & Vicinity (WBV): The recommended plan consists of 49 miles of levee lifts, 268 feet of floodwall replacements, and 1 mile of new floodwall at total project cost of approximately $663 million.

Through both reports, existing levees would be lifted as-needed before the combined effects of consolidation, settlement, subsidence, and sea level rise reduce the levee elevations below the required design heights. In some reaches, levee lifts may need to occur more than once. Floodwalls that will need to be higher in the future, to address those same effects, will either be modified or replaced.

Each report, and environmental impact statement, found the recommendations economically justified, technically feasible, and environmentally acceptable. Future construction of the projects would generally occur in the same footprint as the existing levees and structures.

The final reports, Director’s memo, and supporting information are available online at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New Orleans District website:

LPV: https://www.mvn.usace.army.mil/About/Projects/BBA-2018/studies/LPV-GRR/

WBV: https://www.mvn.usace.army.mil/About/Projects/BBA-2018/studies/WBV-GRR/

 

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Contact
Matt Roe
504-862-1606

Release no. 21-088