[StBernard] Contract Awarded To Raise St. Bernard Levee

[Westley Annis]

Contract Awarded To Raise St. Bernard Levee

POSTED: 4:56 pm CDT April 14, 2008


NEW ORLEANS -- The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has awarded a $41.5 million
contract to a Florida company for the first phase of a project to raise
levees in St. Bernard Parish closer to the "100-year" protection level - a
level designed to protect against a storm with the likelihood of hitting
once a century

The agency said in a news release Monday that the project would raise levees
from Verret to Caernarvon.

Odebrecht Construction Incorporated of Florida recently won the job to do
the first phase, the news release said, noting that during the past six
weeks over 9,500 truckloads of clay material have been hauled to the levee.

In the second phase of the project, to be awarded next year, the section of
levees will be raised to 26 feet: the 100-year level of protection.