Louisiana's Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) and the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) have signed an agreement authorizing the use of up to four million cubic yards (3.06 million cubic metres) of sand to repair the West Belle Headland, which was damaged by Hurricane Zeta in 2020.
Work on the original West Belle Headland restoration project was nearing completion when the hurricane made landfall in October 2020, causing the loss of nearly 75 per cent of the sand and mixed sediment that had already been placed.
The rebuild will be constructed entirely from sand dredged from federal waters on the Outer Continental Shelf, which the agencies stated will make the project more resilient than the original design. The sand will be sourced from two borrow sites on the Ship Shoal sand body.
The CPRA is pursuing construction funding through the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) public assistance program. To date, the project has received $722,150 from FEMA for design and environmental review. CPRA anticipates a decision on construction funding later this year and plans to put the project out for bid in the fall.