The $1-trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) signed into law Nov. 15 includes funding for “nature-based” infrastructure, a sign of the growing bipartisan support among lawmakers and federal officials for approaching flood control and other climate change-related projects by working with natural systems, rather than trying to control them, according to current and former officials at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Federal, state and local officials broke ground July 26 on a levee project along the western shores of Lake Pontchartrain. It's designed to provide hurricane and storm protection to a three-parish area where 60,000 people have little to no defenses in place.
About $4.3 billion was awarded without competition in the Trump era, a watchdog report says. Many awards lacked full scope details, raising the risk of higher project costs.
The U.S. Corps of Engineers Galveston District and Jefferson County Drainage District No. 7 have brought on a joint venture of Freese and Nichols, COWI and CDM Smith (FCC-JV) to part of an $863 million effort to improve hurricane flood protection—levees and floodwalls—for a 65-square-mile area that includes Port Arthur, Texas, and adjacent communities.