Contractor wins latest deal on $3.7bn Louisiana hurricane and storm damage reduction scheme

Image: USACE

Louisiana-based contractor Dynamic Group has won a US$49.8 million deal to build the fifth levee reach on the West Shore Lake Pontchartrain (WSLP) Hurricane and Storm Damage Risk Reduction project.

Dynamic Group will build one mile of the 17.5-mile-long levee system, that will provide 100-year level risk reduction to the area primarily in St. John the Baptist, S. James and St. Charles Parish.

Work under the contract will be performed in St. John the Baptist Parish. The levee elevation will be 11 feet (3.4 metres) and the contract is scheduled for completion in summer 2027.

In July, it emerged that the WSLP project, a series of levees, floodwalls and pump stations in southeast Louisiana on the east-bank of the Mississippi River outside New Orleans would cost $1.27 billion more to complete than originally planned.

The US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) recently updated the certified total project cost for the West Shore Lake Pontchartrain hurricane and storm risk reduction system. It now puts the updated total project cost at $3.7 billion.

Col. Cullen Jones, New Orleans district commander, said, “In the past 12 months the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has awarded $261,721,276.00 for the West Shore Lake Pontchartrain Hurricane and Storm Reduction Project.

“This project continues USACE’s commitment along with its partners at the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority and Pontchartrain Levee District to providing storm surge risk reduction for more than 60,000 people in the St. Charles, St. John the Baptist, and St. James parishes in southeast Louisiana.”