Louisiana's coastal erosion crisis is the most severe in the United States. Since 1932, the state has lost over 2,000 square miles of coastal land—and the rate is accelerating. Hurricane storm surge, subsidence, sea level rise, and the loss of sediment delivery from the channelized Mississippi River combine to destroy coastal marshes, barrier islands, and shoreline infrastructure at a pace that threatens highways, pipelines, navigation channels, and entire communities.
The coastal parishes, Atchafalaya Basin margins, Lake Pontchartrain shoreline, and Mississippi River delta infrastructure all face erosion that undermines road embankments, exposes buried utilities, and progressively destroys the natural storm buffer protecting inland development. Every mile of lost coastline increases the storm surge exposure of the infrastructure behind it.
Revetment armors the shoreline against wave energy, storm surge, and current scour. GSI designs revetment systems calibrated to Louisiana's specific coastal conditions—low-energy bayou shorelines require different armor stone sizing and filter layer design than the high-energy Gulf-facing coast or the fetch-driven wave climate of Lake Pontchartrain.
Louisiana's soft deltaic soils respond well to bioengineered solutions that combine structural elements with living plant root systems. Vegetated geogrids, coir fiber rolls, and planted revetment systems establish self-sustaining shoreline that gains strength over time as root networks develop—reducing long-term maintenance compared to hard armor alone.
Where coastal erosion undermines road embankments, levee toes, or elevated infrastructure, GSI installs anchoring systems that mechanically resist further retreat. Soil nails, ground anchors, and micropile underpinning transfer structural loads to stable strata below the erosion-active zone.
Coastal protection designed for rock shorelines or sandy beaches fails in Louisiana's soft deltaic environment. GSI engineers solutions for the conditions Louisiana's coast actually presents:
Every day of unaddressed erosion means more lost land and more exposed infrastructure. GSI's coastal engineers design protection calibrated to Louisiana's delta terrain and hurricane exposure.
