NEW ORLEANS – As part of ongoing construction of the Inner Harbor Navigation Canal (IHNC)-Lake Borgne Surge Barrier, a major Hurricane and Storm Damage Risk Reduction System project, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and its construction contractor will impose a complete closure to all navigation at the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway (GIWW) where it intersects the Surge Barrier construction site beginning at 3:00 a.m. on June 22, 2011, and continuing until midnight on June 24.
The 45-hour closure will allow crews to test fit the barge gate and conduct a training exercise. Mariners will not be able to enter or exit through the Surge Barrier during the training exercise. Vessels outside of the barrier will not be able to enter until the exercise is complete, and vessels on the inside will not be able to exit to Lake Borgne.
The only exit route for vessels west of the Surge Barrier in the GIWW-IHNC corridor will be through the IHNC Lock to the Mississippi River. In addition to the GIWW closure at the Surge Barrier, the north end of the IHNC-GIWW near Lake Pontchartrain remains closed to all marine traffic, allowing crews to construct the Seabrook Floodgate Complex, another major risk reduction project.
The Corps and its construction contractor are building a bypass barge gate and a flood control sector gate, both 150 feet wide, on the GIWW as part of the IHNC-Lake Borgne Surge Barrier project. The sector gate portion of the GIWW has been closed since August 2010 to allow crews to construct the gate foundation. The $1.1 billion, nearly two-mile-long surge barrier is now ready to defend against the effects of a storm surge with a one percent chance of occurring in any given year.
Mariners are advised to use extreme caution while operating near this area. Once the closure is lifted, mariners are urged to pass through at their slowest safe speed to minimize wake and proceed with caution.
Release no. 11-046