The massive Lake Borgne Marsh Creation Project in St. Bernard Parish is finished.
The Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority celebrated the milestone with a ribbon-cutting ceremony this week on Shell Beach.
The five-year construction project restored 3,180 acres of marsh along the lake’s south shore.
“It provides resiliency to the community, helps stabilize the lake rim, and provides additional security and resiliency to the overall hurricane protection system that was built to protect the greater New Orleans area,” says Michael Hare, CPRA executive director.
Lake Borgne is a critical first line of defense from hurricanes from the Gulf of Mexico that threaten the greater New Orleans area, and this project provides an added layer of defense.
To say that this was a massive project is a mild understatement.
“We’re moving 15 million cubic yards of material,” says Hare — “enough to fill the Superdome three times over.”
Not only did the project have a direct economic impact of more than $32 million on the region, but the final price tag will come in about $5 million less than the original projections.
“I think it’s a real testament to the cooperation between CPRA, our engineering project management staff, and then Duplantis Design Group, who was the engineer on this.”