Project Partnership Agreement Signed For Morganza Project
New Orleans Engineer District Commander Col. Stephen Murphy; Tony Alford, president of the Terrebonne Levee & Conservation District board of commissioners; and Chip Kline, chairman of Louisiana’s Coastal Protection & Restoration Authority, met January 18 to sign the Project Partnership Agreement for the Morganza to the Gulf of Mexico project.
Morganza to the Gulf is planned as a 98-mile system of earthen levees, floodgates, environmental control structures, road and railway gates, armoring for pumping stations and a lock complex on the Houma Navigation Canal. The system will guard portions of Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes, including Houma, Lockport, Bourg, Montegut, Chauvin and Dulac, against surge from the Gulf of Mexico.
The project received $12.46 million in funding from the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021.
“This day has been many years in the making, and we are thankful to all those before us who worked to make it possible,” Murphy said at the signing ceremony. “Signing this project partnership agreement is an important step toward furthering one of our nation’s most important risk reduction systems. The Corps is proud to be a partner with the state, parishes and levee districts and to be able to participate in the path forward to strengthening one of our nation’s most important flood risk reduction systems.”
Authorized at a cost of $886.7 million in the Water Resources Development Act of 2007, the total cost of the project had ballooned to $10.3 billion when it was again authorized in the Water Resources Reform and Development Act of 2014. Project stakeholders came together to develop and approve an Adaptive Criteria Assessment Report (ACAR) in 2019. The ACAR re-envisioned Morganza to the Gulf, reducing the footprint and cost, while maintaining a comparable level of protection. The ACAR reduced the total project cost to $6 billion.
“Today’s Project Partnership Agreement was 30 years in the making—a milestone that’s significance cannot be overstated,” Kline said. “This agreement opens the doors for major federal investment for this vital hurricane protection system, which has been entirely financed through state and local funds until now. We’re grateful to be taking this crucial next step alongside the federal government in providing the people of this region with the protection they deserve.”
Once complete, Morganza to the Gulf will provide storm risk reduction to more than 200,000 people and 53,000 structures across the area.
“The Morganza to the Gulf project has always been my top priority since the Corps reconnaissance study first began in 1992,” said Reggie Dupre, executive director of the Terrebonne Levee & Conservation District. “In the past 30 years, as an elected official and director of the Terrebonne Levee District, I have watched and participated in getting this critical hurricane protection project underway, along with other community leaders such as Terrebonne Parish President Gordon Dove and Terrebonne Levee District President Tony Alford. Thank God that every Louisiana governor since then, along with state agencies, such as CPRA, has been our partner in building the first lift of Morganza while waiting for federal construction funding. I am very happy that Morganza is now truly a federal project with the signing of the Project Partnership Agreement by the Corps, CPRA and the Terrebonne Levee District. We now begin a new chapter in all of our efforts to protect south-central Louisiana.”
Caption for photo: From left at the signing ceremony are Chip Kline, chairman of the Louisiana Coastal Protection & Restoration Authority; Col Stephen Murphy, New Orleans Engineer District commander; and Tony Alford, president of the Terrebonne Levee and & Conservation District board of commissioners.
