WBRZ - Baton Rouge

BATON ROUGE - Construction on a 13-mile pipeline that will deliver Mississippi River sediment into the Barataria Basin to create coastal land could start later this year.

The Advocate reports the sediment pipeline project involves building a structure over the Mississippi River levee that will cross under Louisiana Highway 23 and a railroad, which will stay in place. A contractor will build a pipeline that will go south and southwest from the river to support the Bayou Dupont Ridge Creation and Marsh Restoration project and the Long Distance Sediment Pipeline project in Jefferson and Plaquemines parishes.

About 8.2 million cubic yards of material will be mined from the river.

Kenneth Bahlinger, project manager for the state Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, says the projects will take two years to complete.