Bayou Vista canal improvements are underway

Work is underway to install culverts along the Middle Road Drainage Canal, which parish officials expect to improve drainage and help with canal maintenance in the area.
The project is a longstanding goal of the parish and drainage district and includes placing culverts in the Middle Road Drainage Canal, which parallels the side of Middle Road in Bayou Vista, St. Mary Parish Chief Administrative Officer Henry “Bo” LaGrange said.
Officials are in the first phase of the project, which is being funded by about $460,000 in state capital outlay money, he said. Construction on the first phase began this month and is expected to last another 60 days, LaGrange said.
“They’re currently putting culverts in a section of Middle Road Canal between Teche Road and Southeast Boulevard,” LaGrange said.
As more funding becomes available, the parish will continue to place more culverts in the drainage canal toward U.S. 90, he said.
The aim of the project is to eliminate general maintenance of the canal, such as grass cutting, in addition to helping to decrease erosion along the back of some residences that were difficult to maintain, LaGrange said. “We’re putting in these pipes with the proper grades and the size pipe for the volume of what that they have to carry,” LaGrange said. The work should improve drainage in the area, LaGrange said.
When parish officials originally identified the need for a new pumping station in Bayou Vista, LaGrange also identified the drainage canal project “as something that we wanted to do relative to drainage in Bayou Vista,” he said. “We’re finally getting the first phase going,” LaGrange said.
The roughly $2.8 million Bertrand-Vinning Pump Station in Bayou Vista was deemed substantially complete Nov. 1, 2013, and was expected to help greatly with drainage problems in the area, according to state legislators.
The Bertrand-Vinning Pump Station is located on Opperman Lane about 500 yards from the old Plantation Inn Pump Station. In 2013, state Rep. Sam Jones, D-Franklin, said the pump station would increase the pumping power by 60,000 gallons per minute, Jones said.