NEW ORLEANS – Today, Thursday October 3 at approximately 2:00 PM, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will close the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway (GIWW) barge gate at the Inner Harbor Navigation Canal (IHNC)-Lake Borgne Surge Barrier.
In accordance with the Corps’ operational procedures for the IHNC-Lake Borgne Surge Barrier, the barge gate is closed in advance of a tropical weather event potentially making landfall in Southeast Louisiana. The navigational sector gate on the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway and Bayou Bienvenue lift gate will remain in the open position until further notice.
The IHNC-Lake Borgne Surge Barrier is the largest design-build civil works project in the history of the Corps. The concrete barrier wall stretches for 1.8 miles across the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet and the Golden Triangle Marsh.
The structure also consists of a bypass barge gate and a flood control sector gate (each 150 feet wide) at the GIWW and a 56-foot-wide vertical lift gate at Bayou Bienvenue. The surge barrier has floodwall tie-ins to the New Orleans East risk reduction system on the north end and the St. Bernard risk reduction system on the south end. The entire structure is at an elevation of 25 and 26 feet above sea level.
The project reduces the risks associated with a storm surge that has a one percent chance of occurring in any given year, or a 100-year storm surge, for some of the areas hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina, including New Orleans East, metro New Orleans, Gentilly, the Ninth Ward and St. Bernard Parish.
Release no. 13-063