Yesterday the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) awarded the contract for the first construction increment of the River Reintroduction into Maurepas Swamp project (MSP).
South-Louisiana-based Phylway Construction, LLC will complete “Reach 6” of the project, which includes clearing, excavating, and building guide levees through approximately three miles of Hope Canal between U.S. 61, Airline Highway, and Interstate 10.
The MSP is a 2,000 cubic feet per second (cfs) freshwater diversion located on the East Bank of the Mississippi River in St. John the Baptist Parish, just west of Garyville, Louisiana. The project will reconnect the Mississippi River to the Maurepas Swamp and revitalize over 45,000 acres with freshwater, sediment and nutrients to nourish the area, one of the largest and last remaining coastal freshwater swamps in Louisiana.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) will utilize approximately 9,000 acres of the benefitted wetlands as swamp mitigation for the West Shore Lake Pontchartrain project, a 18.5-mile comprehensive levee system and joint effort of CPRA, USACE, the Pontchartrain Levee District, and St. Charles, St. John the Baptist, and St. James parishes.
The Maurepas project was selected due to the projects’ in basin swamp benefits, marking the first time the USACE has used a CPRA-constructed restoration project as mitigation. The first construction contract is valued at $8.4 million and funded exclusively with state dollars. The cost to construct the Maurepas project in its entirety is valued at over $300 million and will utilize $190 million in funds from fines associated with the Deepwater Horizon oil spill as well as other state only funds.
