Surge barrier ends life of MR-GO

It will take eight Eiffel Towers worth of steel to build the massive structure that will permanently close the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet and better protect the Industrial Canal from storm surges. And much of that steel has been loaded into 1,271 foundation pilings that contractors finished driving Wednesday.

When Army Corps of Engineers contractors pounded the last of the steel-reinforced, 140-foot-long concrete "soldier" pilings deep into the marsh and clay underneath the MR-GO and the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, it marked the ceremonial end of an era. The work closes a shipping corridor that destroyed critical marsh and made the region more vulnerable to hurricanes.

"I think of this as kind of driving the last concrete stake into the heart of MR-GO, and it's a big stake," said Col. Robert Sinkler, the corps' Hurricane Protection Office commander. Sinkler is responsible for seeing that the new structure is built and able to protect the vulnerable Industrial Canal by the June 1 start of the 2011 hurricane season.

"It will turn MR-GO into a NO-GO, and it reduces the risk of storm surges. It's a real milestone," Sinkler said.

This barrier marks the second closing of MR-GO, but many observers say it's the one that counts most.

During the summer, a corps contractor built a rock blockade that stopped marine traffic from using the MR-GO, but that barrier was not designed to defend against storm surges.

It is the permanent 1.8-mile barrier, a project costing more than $1 billion, that will stop future storm surges from rushing up the MR-GO and into the region's heart, as many forensic investigators say happened during Hurricane Katrina.

The foundation of the barrier now in place will provide protection against a surge about 14 feet high, which Sinkler said would have been enough last year to stop Hurricane Gustav's surge from raising water inside the Industrial Canal to dangerous levels. And once complete, the barrier should provide up to twice that much protection....