Article from the Plaquemines Gazette
By Jason Browne
The Coastal Protection & Restoration Authority’s proposed $1.3 billion Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion in Plaquemines Parish has proven endlessly controversial, so the CPRA commissioned two gigantic models of the structure in Massachusetts to make sure the diversion will work the way they think it will.
Brad Barth, CPRA’s operations assist administrator for the Mid-Barataria and Mid-Breton Sediment Diversions, was in Holden, Mass., earlier this month visiting a 200-foot-long model of the Mississippi River, complete with the entrance to the diversion conveyance channel, and a 100-foot-long model of the exit from the conveyance channel, complete with outfall into Barataria basin.
The 1:65 scale models were constructed by Alden Lab, the same company that built the 10,000-square-foot model of the lower Mississippi River for LSU’s Center for River Studies in Baton Rouge. And Barth said CPRA plans to tap Alden again after testing is completed for the Barataria diversion to build models for the Breton diversion.