Heavylifting crews work to rebuild barrier island
WEST GRAND TERRE ISLAND, La. — Excavators, bulldozers and a dredge are working on a $100 million project to raise and reshape a Louisiana barrier island.
West Grand Terre Island helps protect communities from New Orleans’ west bank to Bayou Lafourche from hurricanes and storm surge, said Greg Grandy, deputy executive director of Louisiana’s Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority.
But, like East Grand Terre Island, where some of the BP oil spill’s iconic images were made, West Grand Terre was heavily oiled during the 2010 spill and was severely eroded before that. The two islands were one when Jean Lafitte and his Baratarian pirates made Grand Terre and nearby Grand Isle their headquarters, but now are more than a mile apart.
About $100 million in spill restoration money is being used to restore and create about 256 acres of beach and dune and 143 acres of marsh on West Grand Terre.
“It is one of the most historically and ecologically important barrier islands in Louisiana,” Gov. John Bel Edwards said when funding for this and two other projects was announced in May.
The island is getting 2.5 million cubic yards of sand — nearly enough to fill the Empire State Building twice. That will raise an island that averages 1 foot above sea level, with a maximum of 4 feet, to as much as 8 feet above sea level, said Brett Borne, project engineer for Coastal Engineering Consultants, Inc.
It’s being armored with a mile of huge rocks, starting at the end of similar construction added in the early 2000s.
The rocks being moved from barges last week weighed from 2.5 tons to 6 tons. Below them is a core of smaller rocks about 2 feet long, with geotextile fabric lining the bottom beneath those, said Brian Champagne, project manager for Deep South Construction and Salvage, one of several companies on the project.
A halfdozen excavators work on the project. The crews that run them named the biggest two King Kong and Godzilla, Champagne said.
The dredge’s crew lives on board, working 12hour shifts so dredging continues 24 hours a day.
Weather permitting — Louisiana was hit by three hurricanes and two tropical storms last year and the season that began in June is also active — the work will be done in November.