Emergency center nears completion

Port of Morgan City officials hope to finish construction on the first floor of its new Government Emergency and Operations Center by month’s end and complete the second and final floor within the following few weeks.
The Morgan City Harbor and Terminal District Commission met Monday at the Port of Morgan City.
The 35,000-square-foot, two-story facility will house government tenants on a daily basis in addition to serving as a command center during emergencies, such as hurricanes. The U.S. Coast Guard Marine Safety Unit Morgan City is expected to move its daily operations into the first floor of the Government Emergency and Operations Center. The second floor will serve as a command center in the event of an emergency.
The center is located on La. 182 in Morgan City adjacent to the Morgan City Municipal Auditorium. Port officials broke ground on the center in December 2014.
Port of Morgan City Executive Director Raymond “Mac” Wade hopes the first floor will be finished by the end of the month, and the second floor will follow with completion two to three weeks later, he said.
Last week, St. Mary Levee District commissioners approved entering into lease agreement negotiations with the port to lease about 2,700 square-feet of second-floor space at the center. The levee district currently leases space at the port’s facility on Youngs Road in Morgan City. The Port of Morgan City will also have office space in the new building.
The $11 million, Category 5 hurricane resistant center is being paid for by $7.1 million in state capital outlay funds and about $3.9 million in port funds.
Some minor changes in the work needed to accommodate various tenants slightly pushed back the building completion date, project manager Walt Adams said. Still, officials expect to be able to partially occupy the building before the end of the October, Adams said. M.D. Descant of Bunkie is the construction contractor for the project.
Progress on the center is estimated at 86 percent complete, and the building has permanent power, Adams said. A 600-kilowatt generator is also in place, which will power the entire building without any assistance for three to four days, if needed, Architect Carl Blum said.
Paving of the front parking lot should finish this week, Adams said. The port will also pave additional parking spots behind the center on the auditorium grounds.
On Monday, the port commission approved $24,133 in change orders to the project for items that were already included in the master budget, Blum said.
The City of Morgan City staff has been extremely helpful in making sure the project moves forward, Wade said.
Regarding the Port of Morgan City’s 2013 port security grant award, two generators purchased through the grant have arrived at the port’s Youngs Road facility, Port Special Projects Coordinator Mike Knobloch said. One of the generators is portable, can be used for different emergencies in the area and also at the Emergency and Operations Center, Knobloch said.
During Monday’s meeting, Wade said the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers awarded a $5 million contract to dredge the Atchafalaya River Bar Channel, though the total contract will be $13 million.
Wade said at previous meetings that the lack of depth in the Bar Channel is preventing some vessels from being able to visit the port. The channel is authorized to be 20 feet deep but isn’t at that depth right now.
Port officials are working to design and build their own dredge in order to keep the channel dredged to the authorized depth year round. The corps only has funding to dredge the channel once a year.
The Bar Channel fills back up with sediment about three months after dredging, Wade said.
Dredging of Berwick Bay is underway and the dredge will stay in place another 30 to 45 days, Wade said.

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