Army Corps of Engineers Awards Contract for Plaquemines Parish Levee
The Army Corps of Engineers has awarded a $41.6 million levee enlargement contract for the west bank of Plaquemines Parish that will raise a section from Oakville to La Reussite to create protection from a so-called 50-year storm. It will be built to protect against storm surge created by a hurricane with a 2-percent chance of occurring each year.
The proposed new flood maps – expected to be approved by the parish this year or early next – only count so-called 100-year levees in their flood models. So, anything below that 100-year protection (a 1-percent chance of occurring each year) counts as no protection at all in terms of those flood maps and the subsequently skyrocketing insurance rates.
That’s because the federal government is basing its calculation for the new maps on a 100-year storm event that would overtop smaller levees.
In its announcement of the contract award to Nevada-based Target Construction on Monday afternoon, the corps stated that the Plaquemines 
project will be the fourth of 17 New Orleans to Venice non-federal levee projects.
The 30-month contract with Target Construction includes raising 8.2 miles of earthen levee between Oakville and La Reussite to an elevation between 7.5 and 9 feet, according to the corps.
The upgraded levees will tie into the Ollie Pump Station Fronting Protection project, which currently is under construction. Once completed, both features will provide a continuous line of risk reduction from storm surge from Barataria Bay to the Jesuit Bend community, according to the corps.
Construction is expected to be complete in late 2015.
The New Orleans to Venice project includes about 37 miles of back levee modifications, fronting protection and two sector gates on the west bank. It also includes floodwall fronting protection at two locations on the east bank. The non-federal levee project only is located on the west bank and ends in Oakville. In total, that non-federal west bank project includes about 20 miles of back levee replacements or modifications and a tie-in to the Mississippi River levees.