Highlights
- The Old River Control Structure prevents the Mississippi River from changing course and abandoning New Orleans
- Structure failure would cost $295 million daily in shipping losses alone, with total impacts reaching hundreds of billions
- 60% of U.S. grain exports depend on the Mississippi River shipping that would be severed
- The New Orleans metro area would lose its primary drinking water source within weeks
- Rising flood levels and sediment buildup threaten the 60-year-old structure’s integrity
Old River Control Structure: Louisiana’s Hidden Threat to America’s Economy
The fate of America’s economy hinges on concrete gates that most people have never heard of.
LETTSWORTH, La. (KPEL News) — Four concrete barriers in rural Louisiana control whether the United States remains an economic superpower or faces the worst infrastructure disaster in its history.
The Times-Picayune reports that sediment is choking the Mississippi River around the Old River Control Structure, potentially causing catastrophic damage to a 60-year-old system that nearly failed once before…