Posted on March 19, 2018
By Holly Duchmann, dailycomet.com
Construction is nearing completion of the restoration of Whiskey Island, which helps protect Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes from storm surge.
“We waited a long time for this,” Terrebonne Parish President Gordy Dove said today. “We still have a lot of islands to do, though this will be here for a long time.”
The barrier island, which is 37 miles from Houma, cost an estimated $118.3 million to restore after years of storm erosion. It protects the wetlands in south Terrebonne between Dularge and Cocodrie.
The dark sand, which was once at the bottom of the Mississippi River, is pumped 24 hours a day through 70,000 feet of pipes to the island. On average, 3,400 cubic yards, or 34 dump trucks, of sand spray out of the end of the pipeline onto the island each hour. The sand is dredged from Ship Shoal, an underwater sand site in the Gulf of Mexico.
An estimated 10.4 million cubic yards of sand will be pumped to the island once the project is completed. As of Tuesday, nearly 9.2 million cubic yards had been pumped since construction started in October.
Construction crews are expected to finish pumping the sand next month, and equipment will be removed from the island by midsummer. Plants will be placed on the island this fall to help diversify the environment.
The project is nearly five miles long and will create about 902 acres of barrier island and marsh habitat.
After it’s completed, the island will need to be maintained every 20 years, Dove said.
The rebuilding is part of $627 million in Gulf Coast restoration money BP paid for the 2010 oil spill. From that, Louisiana received $318 million for outer coastal restoration projects, which led to the rebuilding of four barrier islands along the coast.
The construction is being done by Great Lakes Dredge and Dock Co.
Source: dailycomet.com
