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The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers confirmed last Wednesday that it will miss a December deadline to present its latest study regarding the Morganza to the Gulf project.
Corps spokesman Ken Holder said because estimated federal costs for construction of the storm surge protection project increased from $10 billion to $10.2 billion while the present study has been conducted, officials will need to re-check calculations.
“When you are dealing with a project that costs that much, you want to make sure all the numbers are correct,” Holder said. “We are going to work as hard as possible to get it done as soon a possible.”
The corps’ Morganza study timeline began in 1992 with a reconnaissance study, to determine federal interest in a project area from east of the Atchafalaya Basin levee to the western Mississippi river guide levee.
A federal feasibility study was then authorized in 1995 and a report signed in 2002. By 2007, federal estimates for the project were listed at $886 million, but no construction funds were allocated.
Growing tired of the federal process, the Terrebonne Levee and Conservation District worked in cooperation with state and local officials to begin work on its own structure. This has been funded in part by and existing quarter-cent sales tax. Terrebonne Parish voters will be asked in December to add to funding the project with an additional half-cent sales tax.
Local officials were not surprised by the corps announced delay.
“I hate to say it, but this is typical of the corps to put off Morganza,” state Rep Gordon Dove said. As head of the state Natural Resources Committee and a catalyst in ongoing Morganza construction, Dove said he has been pleased that locals recognize the significance of this project.
“I’m not surprised,” Terrebonne Levee and Conservation District Executive Director Reggie Dupre said.”My dealing is with the [corps] New Orleans division on a regular basis. I think a lot of the delays have been caused because of feedback out of headquarters. I think local officials have been trying to make this deadline, but [officials in Washington] constantly want more models and more analysis run.”
Dupre said the larger picture is that locals have made the right decision to build Morganza to the Gulf on their own. “We don’t know when we might have a federal project,” he said. “We haven’t really lost anything. This just confirms what we already knew.”
“I want to strongly state that 20 years is far and away enough time to study and analyze the importance of this project,” Sen. Mary Landrieu said in a printed statement. “The time for study is over and the time for action is now.”
“Morganza to the Gulf is more than hurricane protection for 200,000 residents of Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes, it is protection for America,” added Morganza Action Coalition President Sharon Bergeron.
“There is no way Washington is going to earmark $10 billion,” Dove said. “So, we are pushing forward. It is going to be 18-feet above sea level.”
In comparison to federal financial estimates, and by making use of regional construction companies, the nearly 80-mile length of levees and floodgates will end up costing locals approximately $416 million.
Parish government officials and construction crews survey progress at the Houma Navigational Canal Floodgate structure and have kept close watch of local development with the entire Morganza-to-the-Gulf project.
