Board: Keep Bayou Chene in coastal plan

St. Mary Levee District commissioners will submit a formal request for the Bayou Chene Flood Control and Diversion Project’s inclusion in the state’s coastal master plan, weeks after the project was left out of a draft version of the plan.
The district’s executive director, Tim Matte, says the Bayou Chene project would be a natural fit to partner with an Atchafalaya River diversion project that is in the plan.
Earlier this month, local officials learned the regional flood protection project had been left out of a draft of the 2017 plan, even though it was included in the 2012 master plan.
The levee district commission met Thursday at the Parish Courthouse in Franklin.
The commission approved a resolution during the meeting to ask that the estimated $80 million project be put back in the state’s coastal master plan.
Advocates for the Bayou Chene structure say installing a permanent floodgate on the bayou near Amelia would protect areas in St. Mary, Terrebonne, Assumption, lower St. Martin, Lafourche and Iberville parishes from riverine Atchafalaya flooding.
On Jan. 3, the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority released a draft of the 2017 state coastal master plan of projects. Coastal officials said that the Bayou Chene project was excluded from the draft because it didn’t meet the criteria for inclusion, namely that it wouldn’t create land or provide storm surge protection.
The levee board has already given levee district officials the authority to engage engineers to bring the Bayou Chene project to the 60 percent design stage and meet the requirements of a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ permit.
But, due to concerns over funding for the project, officials have not yet issued a notice to proceed with that design work, Matte said.
State coastal officials initially agreed to fund the entire project, but now say only $40 million is available for the project through the Restore Act.
District leaders plan to issue that notice to proceed once they have a better idea of the funding sources for the project, Matte said.
However, Matte says there may be an opportunity for the Bayou Chene project to work together with the Increase Atchafalaya Flow to Terrebonne Parish project, which is included in the 2017 coastal master plan.
The Atchafalaya project is designed to prevent further land loss in the Terrebonne marshes by introducing freshwater from the river to the region.
“The project isn’t very efficient unless you can close Bayou Chene, the water is just going to go down Bayou Chene,” Matte said.
Operating a floodgate on Bayou Chene could assist in diverting freshwater to Terrebonne Parish, Matte said.
“There really is an opportunity there to make the diversion project more effective at a lower cost and probably at a low enough cost to accommodate a flood protection project, like Bayou Chene,” he said.
Levee district officials will meet with coastal officials Tuesday to discuss the matter.
The deadline for public comments on the plan is March 26. A public meeting will take place from 5:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m. Jan. 24 at Houma Terrebonne Civic Center to discuss the plan.
Morgan City’s $18 million levee improvements project to raise and upgrade levees to provide 100-year storm surge flood protection is progressing. St. Mary Parish Consolidated Gravity Drainage District 2 is in charge of that project.
That project is included in the draft of the 2017 master plan, but is listed in the 31- to 50-year time frame for completion at a cost of roughly $140 million.
Officials expect to actually only spend $24 million to complete about 80 percent of the Morgan City levee work. CPRA is already funding $9 million of the project, Matte said. Engineers have not yet come up with a plan to provide protection for Lakeside Subdivision, but they expect the rest of the Morgan City project to finish in 2018.
Matte and other levee district officials plan to make the case to coastal leaders that the Morgan City levee project should be moved into a shorter timeframe for completion and receive more CPRA funds, he said.
During Thursday’s meeting, engineer Kevin O’Gorman of T. Baker Smith said the portion to raise levees in Siracusaville was scheduled to finish at the end of March, but will likely take longer than that due to bad weather and the holidays.
For the Lake End Park to Justa Street part of the project, Phylway Construction was the low bidder at about $8 million. O’Gorman anticipates construction could begin in late February.
Engineers are also pursuing a project permit from the state Department of Transportation and Development for the section to raise a quarter-mile of La. 70 by Lake End Park and tie it into the levee system, he said.