Plaquemines Parish-- The Gulf Intracoastal Waterway can be the west bank's MRGO.
The ship channel, critical to New Orleans maritime and oil and gas industries, practically invites storm surge from the Barataria Basin.
At an afternoon ceremony, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and contractors showed off the solution, a set of surge gates on the G.I.W.W. and the area's largest pumping station.
The project, 1/2 mile south of the intersection of the Harvey Canal and the Intracoastal, is projected to cost anywhere from $500 million to $One Billion, the second most expensive link in metro New Orleans hardened storm barriers. Only the 2-mile long wall in eastern New Orleans costs more, at $1.3 billion.
When the project is complete, the pumping station will move 20,000 cubic feet of storm runoff per second, or enough water to fill an Olympic-sized pool in under 5 seconds.
The Corps boasts it has already cut years off the work by picking contractors early and involving them in the planning process.
"You're working the design right along and parallel with construction," said Maj. General Bo Temple.
The fast-track approach is not without critics, notably the Flood Protection Authority for the West Bank, which questions what the final design will entail.
While praising the early contractor involvement as innovative, Flood Authority Chair Susan Maclay cautions, "until it is done and we absolutely know what we're going to have out here, we would be foolish not to have some concern."
The Corps counters the approach has been used successfully on projects around the world.
"We do know what the requirement is in terms of the level of protection and what this system is expected to do," said Temple.
The surge gates should be complete by the 2011 hurricane season, according to Corps spokesmen. Construction on the pumping station will run into 2012.
