Construction of 21 miles of bioengineered oyster reefs in Jefferson, Plaquemines and St. Bernard parishes tops a list of $60 million in projects that the state wants to build with unused money from the federal Coastal Impact Assistance Program, Gov. Bobby Jindal announced Wednesday.
The money comes from other Coastal Impact Assistance Program projects that have been completed for less than budgeted or whose construction has been delayed by the Army Corps of Engineers, Jindal said during a news conference in Thibodeaux. The reallocations must still be approved by the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement.
“Rather than continue to wait on the corps of engineers, we are pleased that we can now prioritize $60 million to immediately begin work on new projects,” Jindal said in a statement released after the news conference. “After four hurricanes in three years and the BP oil spill, it is imperative that we do everything we can to restore our coast and get to work on hurricane protection projects that will help lessen the impact of future storms.”
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