Plans are moving forward on two major Mississippi River sediment diversion projects, considered crucial to rebuilding Louisiana’s coast. The state has started to look for an engineering and design firm for one of the diversions and, in December, will begin to look for a contractor for the other.
In July, the state tapped AECOM to oversee project management, engineering and design for the proposed $1.3-billion Mid-Barataria Diversion Project. The Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA), the state agency overseeing the state’s $50-billion master coastal plan, hopes to have 15% of the design completed and negotiate a construction manager-at-risk (CMAR) contract for the project by September 2018. In October 2017, the state began to advertise for an engineer and designer for a second project, the $800-million mid-Breton diversion.