The floodgate is designed to protect the Industrial Canal and the surrounding areas from a storm surge from Lake Pontchartrain.

[1] The Seabrook Floodgate Structure consists of a sector gate and two vertical lift gates approximately 340 feet (100 m) south of the Senator Ted Hickey Bridge with flood wall tie-ins on the east and west sides.

[2] Other components of the Seabrook Floodgate project include added T-walls and the replacement of the existing Alabama Great Southern Railroad gate with a new taller gate that met the 100 year level of risk reduction; new T-walls that tie into a new vehicle gate built at the boat launch on Leon C. Simon Drive; and raising the Hayne Boulevard ramps on both the east and west sides of the canal.

[3] The Seabrook structure closed the only remaining gap on the East Bank of the Hurricane and Storm Damage Risk Reduction System.

[5] The same month it was closed for the first time, in order to protect the city from Hurricane Isaac.