AMITE---Tangipahoa Parish Government has been awarded an additional $5.9 million in Phase II funding for construction of the Lake Pontchartrain Shoreline Protection Project.

Tangipahoa Parish President Gordon Burgess announced the grant, which was presented by the United States Department of the Interior Fish and Wildlife Service.

The funding will be used to create a shoreline protection zone between Pass Manchac and the Tangipahoa River and aims to combat coastal erosion along Tangipahoa's lakefront shoreline.

Experts say that Tangipahoa's shoreline erodes approximately 5-15 feet per year along Lake Pontchartrain.

In 2010, Tangipahoa received $699,400 in initial allocation to design the shoreline protection project. HDR Engineering completed the design phase prior to this week's announcement of the construction phase funding.

Thus far, Tangipahoa has won $6.58 million for coastal preservation efforts.