Corps building 2-mile floodwall

• By AMY WOLD
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Dec 5, 2008 - Page: 1A - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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NEW ORLEANS — An area that funneled storm surge into New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina will be blocked off to storm surges of up to 14 feet by next August and up to at least 24 feet by 2011, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officials said Thursday.

During a groundbreaking ceremony, the corps gave the symbolic order to start construction on the 2-mile storm-surge barrier just west of Lake Borgne.

“Some people didn’t believe this day would ever come to pass,” said Col. Michael McCormick, commander of the New Orleans corps’ Hurricane Protection Office.

When complete, the storm-surge barrier will stretch from the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway and across the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet, also known as MRGO.

Called the Inner Harbor Navigation Canal Surge Reduction, the project is designed to stop hurricane storm surge from pushing up from the Gulf of Mexico and Lake Borgne and into the Inner Harbor Navigation Canal, also known as the Industrial Canal.

During Hurricane Katrina, storm surge pushed through the lake and between the levees that marked the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway and MRGO. This funnel of water then entered the Industrial Canal and led to the four breaches that flooded swaths of New Orleans.

The storm-surge barrier is scheduled to be completed by 2011 and will become another piece of the corps’ plan to achieve 100-year storm protection for the greater New Orleans area.

The 100-year storm is the intensity of storm that has a 1 percent chance in any given year to hit the area.

At the storm-surge barrier location, that elevation is about 24 feet.

In the short term, a 14-foot storm-surge barrier along with blockages at the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, Bayou Bienvenue and MRGO are expected to be completed next August, McCormick said.

If the system had been in place during this hurricane season, storm surge would not have splashed over the Inner Harbor Navigation Canal floodwalls during Hurricane Gustav, said Lt. Gen. Robert Van Antwerp, corps chief of engineers. Had the system been in place, that storm surge would have been stopped farther to the east.

“This is going to make an incredible impact,” Antwerp said of the barrier.

The $695 million contract to design and build the large structure was awarded to Shaw Environmental and Infrastructure in April.