Bayou Chene project gets state permit

The St. Mary Levee District is approaching another major milestone in its $100 million Bayou Flood Control and Diversion Project, which has been 3½ years in the making.
On Thursday, Engineer Jeff Peña of CB&I said the levee district has received the draft of the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources permit for the Bayou Chene project.
The St. Mary Levee District Commission met Thursday at the Port of Morgan City.
Officials spent 3½ years going through the process to get the permit, said Nicole Cutforth of CB&I.
St. Mary Levee District Executive Director Tim Matte confirmed this morning that the levee district received the Department of Natural Resources permit.
The Bayou Chene Flood Control and Diversion Project involves installing a permanent structure on Bayou Chene in the Amelia area, near the former McDermott yard, with a barge that can be sunk in the event of a flood to stop flood waters from traveling through Bayou Chene. The structure is expected to have a 250-foot opening for vessel traffic to pass through except when the structure is in use for flood protection.
In 2011, the levee district installed a temporary structure to block flood waters when the Atchafalaya River rose to 10.5 feet in Morgan City in order to protect five parishes from flooding. Ever since that time, officials have worked to get a permanent flood protection structure installed on Bayou Chene.
Bayou Chene is directly connected to the Atchafalaya River.
The next permit the district will need to get is one from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which levee district engineers are working on, Peña said.
The St. Mary Levee District plans to initiate construction on the project within two years, Matte said.
On Aug. 19, the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority received notification that the Bayou Chene Flood Control and Diversion Project will receive funds from one of the “buckets” of money in the Restore Act, Levee District Commission President Bill Hidalgo said at a news conference last month.
The Restore Act refers to the settlement funds paid to Gulf Coast communities as a result of the 2010 BP oil spill.
The Bayou Chene project has “region wide benefits,” and will prevent riverine, backwater, storm water and storm surge flooding associated with hurricanes in St. Mary, Terrebonne, Lafourche, lower St. Martin and Assumption parishes, authority Chairman Chip Kline said.
It will be funded out of the same “pot of money” as the Houma Navigation Canal lock structure and Calcasieu salinity control structure, Matte said. The Bayou Chene structure is expected to cost $107.5 million with the other two projects expected to cost an estimated $400 million each, Matte said.
There probably won’t be enough money in that “pot” of the Restore Act to fully fund all three projects, Matte said.
Because the Bayou Chene project is the smallest of the three projects, it may be able to receive some funds before the other projects, Matte said. St. Mary Levee District leaders are also open to the option of borrowing money, if necessary, to complete the project.
The state is supposed to sign an agreement with BP in early 2016 to distribute the funds, but the state wouldn’t begin to actually receive the Restore Act funds until early 2017, Matte said. The state will get Restore Act money throughout a 15-year period, he said.
The levee district’s goal is to have the final design complete by January 2017, which means the project will be “shovel ready,” Matte said.
Construction of the Bayou Chene project may take about 1½ years to finish, but officials are also looking at the possibility of doing the project in stages, Matte said.
Also during Thursday’s levee district meeting, the commission approved an amendment to do modeling on the Bayou Teche Flood Control project in the amount of $33,632.

This story was written by Zachary Fitzgerald of The Daily Review staff. Reach him at zfitzgerald@daily-review.com.