NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A Baton Rouge company has a $55 million contract for work on a flood-control canal planned for decades.
The Comite River Diversion Canal would redirect high water from the Comite and several bayous in northern East Baton Rouge Parish into the Mississippi River during an emergency.
The Pentagon’s list of contracts awarded Thursday included one between James Construction and the Army Corps of Engineers’ New Orleans office for the project. There were four bidders for the work to be completed by the end of 2021.
The money is coming from fiscal 2018 civil construction funds.
The project was planned after a devastating flood in 1983. It finally got a green light in 2018, when the federal government approved $343 million in new funding in addition to money appropriate earlier.
Work started in April 2019.
