Dive Temporary:
- Part two of the Houma Navigation Canal Lock Complicated broke floor on Aug. 7, in accordance with a information launch from the Louisiana Coastal Safety and Restoration Authority. Thibodaux, Louisiana-based SeaLevel Building is constructing the mission, which prices $300 million.
- The HNC Lock Complicated is a navigation, flood barrier and hydrologic restoration effort that may assist restrict saltwater intrusion and distribute freshwater throughout the Terrebonne Basin, southwest of New Orleans, and defend 1000’s of acres of wetland wildlife habitat, per the discharge. Additionally it is meant to facilitate industrial ship journey within the Houma Navigation Canal.
- The brand new lock will shut one of many few remaining gaps of the $6.6 billion Morganza to the Gulf Hurricane Safety system, which stretches for 98 miles and makes use of levees, floodgates and locks to guard roughly 200,000 residents and practically 2,000 sq. miles of land in Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes from storm surge.
Dive Perception:
The HNC Lock Complicated will span 110 toes throughout and 800 toes in size with sector gates on both aspect, immediately adjoining to the prevailing 250-foot-wide Bubba Dove barge floodgate, in accordance with the discharge. A braced floodwall will tie the 2 elements collectively throughout the channel, and they’re going to work in live performance to permit bigger ships to move via the canal.
Undertaking work consists of development of inland and gulf-side sector gates and the lock chamber. It additionally entails completion of the operations space, the management constructing and the management constructing entry bridge in addition to hydraulically dredging roughly 135,000 cubic yards of fabric from the HNC to reestablish 15 acres of brackish marsh habitat.
“At the moment’s groundbreaking brings us one step nearer to finishing the Morganza to the Gulf system and enhancing the safety towards hurricanes and different main storms for the residents of Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes,” mentioned CPRA Chair Gordon Dove within the launch.
The primary part, accomplished in 2022, dredged 1 million cubic yards of fabric and constructed 150 acres of marsh within the areas surrounding the complicated. A grant from the BP oil spill Restore Act is partly funding the mission.
As soon as full, the Morganza to the Gulf Hurricane Safety system goals to supply 100-year-flood degree danger discount, defending the area from a storm surge that has a 1% probability of occurring in any given yr, per the mission web site. Final week the Military Corps of Engineers introduced it’s beginning a complete environmental evaluate of the mission to see if additional enhancements are wanted to account for sea degree rise and heightened storm results, which might enhance its prices.
