Neptune Pass, once a small canal in south New Orleans, is now a channel that has five times the flow of the Hudson River, according to NASA.
New Orleans District of the Army Corps of Engineers Chief of Public Affairs Ricky Boyett joined WWL’s Newell Normand this week to discuss a plan to fix the widening pass with nearly 60,000 tons of stone.
“Since 2019, we’ve started to see this Neptune pass expanding,” Boyett explained. “And it’s gotten to the point where it’s taking in about 16% of the Mississippi River and it’s pulling it off – and what that does is not only does it create a suction effect for shipping that’s trying to come in and pull in it towards the pass, but it also increases shoaling, which is not only dangerous for the ships, but it’s also very expensive to maintain.”
This shoaling requires “not only more surveys and more awareness from the pilots, but also it prevents the ships from being able to carry the loads that they’re supposed to be able to,” in the area, said Boyett.
To prevent further deterioration and widening of Neptune Pass, the Army Corps of Engineers has started remediation process that involves new stone.
“We are in the process of designing… we’ll put about 60,000 tons of stone in along the lower – and I guess to say the more southern part at the Mississippi River Bank, and that’ll help us control this continuing expansion of the canal,” he said. “But we’re also currently in designs for a closure structure. It’s really a controlled structure in which we can kind of restore net to pass back to its 2019 conditions, back to before we saw this rapid expansion start to occur.”
Listen to the full conversation here to learn more about the project.
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