Coastal Protection and
Restoration Authority

Project Overview:

Highlighted in both Louisiana’s 2023 Coastal Master Plan and recently approved Fiscal Year 2025 Annual Plan, the Houma Navigational Canal Lock Complex is a key component of the Morganza to the Gulf Hurricane Protection system and will offer both ecological protection and economic benefits.

The HNC Lock Complex is a large-scale navigation, flood protection, and hydrologic restoration project that will help limit saltwater intrusion and distribute freshwater within the Terrebonne Basin, allowing for the maintenance of thousands of acres of wetlands. Once completed, the HNC Lock Complex will span 110 feet across and 800 feet in length with sector gates on either side, directly adjacent to the existing 250-foot-wide Bubba Dove barge floodgate.

Upon completion, the HNC Lock Complex will allow a longer window of opportunity for navigation activities when the adjacent Bubba Dove Floodgate is closed to protect communities from storm surge or high water events. During gate closures, the lock will allow vessels to travel in either direction on the HNC, enabling officials to close the floodgate earlier and keep it closed longer, benefiting the area’s ecosystem suffering from saltwater intrusion.

The HNC Lock Complex will also close one of the few remaining gaps of the Morganza to the Gulf hurricane protection system, which uses a variety of features such as levees, floodgates, and locks to protect approximately 200,000 residents and nearly 2,000 square miles of land in Terrebonne and Lafourche Parish from potentially deadly storm surge.

Phase 1 of the HNC Lock Complex project dredged over 1 million cubic yards of material to prepare the area for the lock complex and create 150 acres of marsh in six areas north of the complex along the navigation channel.

Phase 2 of the project includes construction of Inland and Gulf-side sector gates as well as the lock chamber to complete the HNC Lock Complex. Phase 2 of the project also includes the completion of the operations area, the control building, the 175-foot control building access bridge as well as the hydraulically dredging approximately 135,000 cubic yards of material from the HNC to reestablish 15 acres of brackish marsh habitat, benefiting the area’s ecosystem and wildlife.

The HNC Lock Complex is a joint effort of CPRA and the Terrebonne Levee and Conservation District. Engineering, design, and construction for Phases 1 and 2 of the HNC Lock Complex are funded with money resulting from the damages of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, allocated through the Resources and Ecosystems Sustainability, Tourist Opportunities, and Revived Economies of the Gulf Coast States Act (RESTORE Act).

Sealevel Construction, Inc., headquartered in Thibodaux, won the competitively bid dredging contract for the lock site.

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