NEW ORLEANS — The critical project to modernize and stabilize power sources to the city of New Orleans drainage and pumping infrastructure would have to be completed missing some key parts if $29 million in funding that was anticipated in this year’s legislative session doesn’t materialize, executive director Ghassan Korban said Friday morning on WWL Louisiana.
The city was counting on that money to complete the modernization of its power sources that would include an Entergy substation and new turbines and other equipment that Korban said would make the system “reliable, efficient and redundant.”
Even though the city did not receive any money from the legislature, Korban is hopeful and said that he is “hearing positive things,” about funding.
NOLA.com said that Governor Jeff Landry had called a media briefing to announced “funding improvements for the project,” but that briefing was called off. A spokesperson for the governor told NOLA.com that it was merely due to scheduling reasons and that it would take place “in the next few weeks.”
Korban said the critical project, that won’t be ready for what is expected to be a very busy 2024 hurricane, would still be ready for mid-year 2025, but, that without the funding, it would “have missing components that will force us to use manual processes here and there so it still won’t be how it was designed.”
The city has had several street flooding incidents over the past half year after an extremely dry summer in 2023.
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