NEW ORLEANS – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers awarded a $2.4 million contract on Dec. 10 to Shavers-Whittle Construction, a Louisiana-based firm, to further strengthen a section along the East Wall of the Inner Harbor Navigation Canal (IHNC). This work will address potential seepage and reduce the risk of storm damage from an event that has a one percent chance of occurring in any given year.
The contract calls for driving 1,400 feet of sheet pile to a depth of 50 feet approximately 4,000 feet south of the Ted Hickey (Seabrook) Bridge. Earlier this year, the Corps added relief wells to a 3,000-foot section along the East Wall between Almonaster Boulevard and the Lakefront.
The existing levees and floodwalls along the IHNC corridor will become a secondary system of protection. The primary system of protection will be the Lake Borgne Surge Barrier and the proposed Seabrook Floodgate Complex which, when complete, would operate in tandem to
reduce impacts to Orleans Metro, New Orleans East, Gentilly, the Lower Ninth Ward and St. Bernard Parish.
The Corps will issue a notice to proceed for the East Wall work later this month and construction will be complete in mid-March.
Release no. 09-009