Louisiana’s Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) selected Stantec to provide engineering, geotechnical, surveying and other technical design services for the Mid-Breton Sediment Diversion project.

A component of Louisiana’s Comprehensive Master Plan for a Sustainable Coast, the project is part of the Mississippi River Mid-Basin Sediment Diversion Program, which also includes the proposed Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion. These two efforts will be the first controlled sediment diversions reconnecting the Mississippi River with its delta.

A cornerstone of Louisiana’s Coastal Master Plan, these diversions will provide sediment, water and nutrients to the basins in order to build, maintain and sustain the wetlands, complementing the billions of dollars that have been or will be invested in coastal protection and restoration projects, such as marsh creation projects, which utilize Mississippi River sediments dredged from the river.

(Read "Hardening the Energy Coast.")

In October 2017, CPRA issued a Request for Statement of Interest and Qualifications (RSIQ) to eligible firms interested in the engineering and design portion of this project. Teams submitted written proposals and a selection committee evaluated these proposals. In January 2018, CPRA conducted oral presentations with the teams.

The Stantec team will work under a project delivery method known as Construction Management at Risk (CMAR). Under this model, CPRA will hire the construction contractor during the early design phase to collaborate with the project Design Team on engineering, constructability, scheduling and costing. CPRA is slated to release a Request for Qualifications for CMAR services in the first quarter of 2019.

In 2013, a U.S. District Court approved two plea agreements resolving criminal cases against BP and Transocean,which arose from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill. The agreements direct a total of $2.544 billion to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to fund projects benefiting the natural resources of the Gulf Coast that were impacted by the spill.

In Louisiana, this settlement mandated that these funds be dedicated to “create or restore barrier islands off the coast of Louisiana and/or to implement river diversion projects on the Mississippi and/or Atchafalaya Rivers for the purpose of creating, preserving and restoring coastal habitat."

Project at a Glance

The Mid-Breton Sediment Diversion structure will be located in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, on the east bank of the Mississippi River, near Wills Point, approximately at Mississippi River Mile 69.

The diversion complex is anticipated to include an inlet channel, a gated structure at the Mississippi River Levee, a conveyance channel, outlet channel complex, interior drainage improvements and highway accommodations.

Project engineering and design will begin immediately and run concurrently with the permitting process required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) that is being led by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Construction will begin soon after the engineering phase and the permitting process are complete.

Louisiana’s Coastal Master Plan identifies sediment diversions as necessary projects to create a more sustainable coastal Louisiana landscape. The Breton Basin is an area that has experienced significant land loss due to sediment deprivation, hydrologic alteration, subsidence, sea level rise and salt water intrusion.

Since the Mississippi River was leveed in the 1930s, the Breton Basin and Mississippi River Delta have lost approximately 700 square miles (or 447,000 acres) of land, representing one of the highest land loss rates in the world.