NEW ORLEANS – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New Orleans District awarded a $12.3 million contract to enlarge 2.7 miles of levee along the Lake Cataouatche alignment on the west bank of New Orleans. This contract will raise the levee reach to the 100-year elevation required to reduce risk for residences and businesses from a storm surge that has a 1 percent chance of occurring each year.
“Construction to bring the West Bank & Vicinity portion of the Hurricane and Storm Damage Risk Reduction System to the 100-year level of risk reduction is in full swing” said Julie Vignes, Senior Project Manager. “The Lake Cataouatche enlarged levee will extend from the Lake Cataouatche Pump Station west to the Western Tie-In alignment.”
The contract was awarded to Circle, Inc. of Belle Chasse, LA, a local small business, to raise this stretch of levee to an elevation of +11.5 feet. This project will provide further risk reduction for the areas of Avondale, Waggaman, and Bridge City from storm surges entering Lake Cataouatche and the greater Barataria Basin.
Construction of the levee enlargement should begin in September of this year and be completed by February 2011. The levee will be raised using approximately one million cubic yards of borrow, which is the clay material required to construct levees.
The Corps is sharing responsibilities with its non-federal partners, the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development, the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-West, and the West Jefferson Levee District.
Release no. 09-066