The Army Corps of Engineers is closing the
last 30 bays of the Bonnet Carre Spillway.
The corps opened the spillway on April 11th, as storms and
melting snow in the Ohio and upper Mississippi River valleys
created an unusually large volume of water into the lower
Mississippi River basin.
The spillway, located 28 miles above New Orleans at Norco, is
designed to divert water from the river into Lake Pontchartrain,
preventing strain on levees, and slowing the velocity of the river
flow past the city.
The corps began closing the spillway bays on April 30th. One
hundred sixty of the spillway’s 350 bays were opened during the
high water event.
The spillway, built after the disastrous 1927 flood, was opened
for the first time in 1937. This year’s opening is the ninth since
its construction. It was last opened in 1997.