Work on long-awaited levee project reaches a milestone

NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - Work on the levee system in Terrebonne Parish has reached a new milestone with a construction project underway near Montegut.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is funding the $12 million Humble Canal preload project, preparing the soil which will support a Humble Canal Floodgate structure.

The project marks the first segment of the critical 98-mile Morganza-to-the-Gulf Hurricane Risk Reduction System to be built with federal dollars.

”I thought I’d be dead and gone by the time we had federal projects being done,” said Reggie Dupre, Executive Director of the Terrebonne Levee and Conservation District.

For decades, Terrebonne and Lafourche Parishes were forced to go it alone, building levees primarily through local tax dollars.

“The studies for this project started in ‘92,” Dupre said. “We didn’t get funded until 29 years later for construction.”

In 2021, Congress included nearly $380 million in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law specifically for the construction of Morganza to the Gulf.

This a priority project and the Corps will leverage all the capabilities needed to deliver on Congress and the Administration’s commitment to the people of south Louisiana,” said Colonel Cullen Jones, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers New Orleans District as the Corps broke ground on the project last December.

Morganza to the Gulf, which also protects parts of Lafourche Parish, has been envisioned for decades.

“People living in and around Terrebonne and Lafourche Parishes are another step closer to having the protection they deserve against major storms,” said Chip Kline, Chairman of the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority. “It’s critical that the work doesn’t stop here.”

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