“We might not go as ‘mega’ as the Netherlands, but it’s definitely possible to (try) the concept here,” Grandy said.

It’s been tried once in Louisiana during the early 1990s but mostly as a way to get around wildlife protection rules. Unable to dump river sediment directly on pelican nesting habitat on Breton Island, the Corps instead poured it about 100 yards from shore. Waves pushed much of the sediment to the island as planned, “but it didn’t stick,” said Ed Creef, an environmental resources specialist who led the project for the Corps. “With waves and storms, it was a very rough environment. By 1999, it was all gone.”

Natural forces have made lasting improvements to restoration projects, but not by design. Sand from an old project moved to form the foundation of a new coastal authority project at Port Fourchon. The agency's engineers show it as proof that ‘building with nature’ can work on the Louisiana coast, but they can’t claim credit for it.

“It was more serendipitous,” Grandy admitted.

Grandy said the need to harness nature to help restore the coast is “a lesson we learned a long time ago.” It was highlighted in the state’s 2017 Coastal Master Plan and may be a component of an upcoming plan for future barrier island restoration projects, he said.

Yet the next batch of scheduled barrier island and headland restoration projects rely on what has become the coastal authority's standard approach. Work on Timbalier, Trinity and Grand Terre islands and the West Belle headland will use methods similar to Whiskey and Caminada. And it’ll come at a high cost: $268 million.

In 15 or 20 years, all these projects, critical for the protection of Louisiana’s ports, coastal communities and vanishing wetlands, will need to be redone. Barring another catastrophic oil spill and the vast legal settlement that comes with it, state leaders will likely have no way to pay for it.

Until they somehow find hundreds of millions — perhaps billions — of dollars to fill the ever-widening funding gap, or else cheaper, Sand Motor-inspired methods of rebuilding the coast, at least one state leader won’t be sleeping well.

“It does keep me up at night,” Grandy said. “There are very few things that keep me up, but that’s definitely on the short list.”

Staff writer Jeff Adelson and Tegan Wendland, of WWNO New Orleans Public Radio, contributed to this story.