Coastal Engineering Consultants, Inc. (CEC) is recognized as one of the Southeast Region’s premier coastal consulting firms in ecosystem restoration with significant experience restoring wetlands and coastal shorelines over the last decades.
The specialties and capabilities of our ecosystem restoration professionals include the following:
Wetland & Coastal Zone Mitigation, Restoration & Creation
- Feasibility Studies
- Sand & Marsh Sediment Searches
- Environmental Surveys
- Habitat Restoration Planning & Implementation
- Wetland Value Assessments (WVAs)
- Shoreline Protection
- Marsh & Wetland Creation
- Breach Management Planning
- Storm Response Alternatives
- Performance Monitoring & Assessment
- Construction Management
- Permitting & Environmental Compliance
- Estimating Project Costs & Benefits
- Rendering Expert Opinion
- Performing Project Management
In the 1980s, CEC conducted one of the first successful mangrove restoration projects in Florida. Since then, we have worked on mangrove monitoring; the design of living shorelines; and the design of seagrass, dune and mangrove restoration, including the planting of native vegetation throughout the region.
Since 2002 CEC has been part of a team of coastal scientists and engineers working on the permitting and construction of barrier island ecosystem restoration projects designed to restore beaches and protect the marshes and bayous in coastal Louisiana. This work involves creating extensive salt marshes on the bays side of these islands and dune creation on newly created or existing beaches of the islands.
CEC is honored to have been selected by the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority to provide comprehensive services for projects of national significance such as the Barataria Basin Barrier Shoreline Restoration Feasibility Study, the Riverine Sand Mining/Scofield Island Restoration, the Pass Chaland to Grand Bayou Pass Barrier Shoreline Restoration, and the Terrebonne Basin Barrier Shoreline Restoration Feasibility Study. Both the Pass Chaland and Scofield Island projects included the construction of beach and dune habitat and the successful creation of extensive bay-side marshes. CEC has designed, permitted, and administered the construction of over 22 million cubic yards of sediment for beach nourishment, navigation channels, ecosystem restoration, ridge and terracing, and other beneficial use projects.
These projects have produced complicated engineering dilemmas that CEC has overcome with a combination of innovative design and ambitious planning. CEC uses these tools to guide the complex projects from feasibility studies through shovel-ready designs to construction completion. A recent example is the successful completion of the Scofield Island Restoration Project, which, for the first time in our nation’s history, utilized sand dredged from the Mississippi River to restore the geomorphic and ecological form and function of this critical barrier island habitat. Just one of the milestones accomplished by this project was the pumping of beach quality sand from the Mississippi River through 22 miles of pipeline, crossing two levees, tunneling beneath two highways, and managing numerous navigation channel and petrochemical pipeline intersections in the process.
Using the same suite of modeling and analysis techniques used in restoration planning, CEC has undertaken an evaluation of the performance of previous barrier island restoration projects. The study showed that restoration efforts retarded the rapid land loss that followed the impacts and breach formation from hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Gustav, and Ike. Where projects were constructed the recent rapid erosion rates declined to historic background levels.
For more information, please contact Greg Grandy, 225-706-5615, ggrandy@ceci-la.com.
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