At the urging of Louisiana Congressmen Steve Scalise and Garret Graves and our local levee districts, the U.S. Office of Management and Budget has agreed to a request made by the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for re-programing $1.25 million of its funds to update economic analysis and complete the design of the Morganza to the Gulf (MTG) Hurricane Protection Project.
This effort is to reflect the construction progress made by local levee districts and the State along with adapting their criteria based on our construction techniques and design.
The revision will include a more efficient design of levees in the MTG system and is expected to substantially reduce the overall cost of the federally authorized levee, floodgate and lock project. The cost reduction should put our community in a better position to get federal funding to complete the construction of MTG.
"These funds will be used to help update the project from an unaffordable $14 billion to more realistic figures," the Congressmen said in a joint statement.
Last year, the USACE re-evaluated the MTG project and lowered its preliminary estimated cost for construction to $3-$6 billion. So far, the federal government has not spent any money on MTG construction, while over $450 million in state and local funds have been spent to date, with an additional $500 million planned for upcoming work.
North Lafourche Levee District is a member of the
Morganza Action Coalition
, a grass-roots organization advocating for federal support of MTG to protect our homes and businesses in Terrebonne and Lafourche.
