Removal of Bayou Chene barge to start next week

Work will begin next week to remove the Bayou Chene emergency flood protection structure, and small vessels should be able to travel through the bayou within two weeks, St. Mary Levee District officials said Thursday.
In January, the levee district installed a barge on Bayou Chene in Amelia surrounded by steel sheet piles and rock to prevent flooding of areas in St. Mary, Lower St. Martin, Terrebonne, Assumption, Lafourche and Iberville parishes. The Louisiana National Guard also placed Hesco baskets on Avoca Island to keep flood waters from bypassing Bayou Chene. The Atchafalaya River crested Jan. 23 at 8.2 feet in Morgan City.
On Thursday, the St. Mary Levee District Commission approved awarding a bid to Chet Morrison Contractors of Houma to remove the Bayou Chene Emergency Structure at a cost of $1.14 million. Chet Morrison also helped install the structure.
Officials will issue a notice to proceed Monday to remove the structure, engineer Jeff Peña of CB&I said. Bayou Chene should be open to small vessel traffic in about two weeks, he said.
The U.S. Coast Guard will determine when larger vessels will be able to travel through Bayou Chene, Levee District Executive Director Tim Matte said.
The contractor will have 60 days to finish removing the structure, Peña said. The levee district plans to leave a 250-foot opening in Bayou Chene for vessel traffic to pass through.
Workers will begin clearing rock at the structure and then start removing sheet piles, Matte said. Officials can eventually slide the barge out of place and return it back to the owner, he said.
Leaving a 250-foot opening will allow officials to more quickly install a temporary flood protection structure in the future, Matte said.
As early as next week, the district will bid out the Avoca Road rehabilitation project to repair damage sustained to the road during the placement of Hesco baskets, Matte said. That project will take about 60 days.
District officials expect to receive 75 percent reimbursement from FEMA for the $7.5 million total cost of the temporary Bayou Chene project, which includes installing and removing the structure, along with making repairs to Avoca Road.
The district plans to reuse some materials for the permanent $107.5 Bayou Chene Flood Control and Diversion Project, which will be located about 500 feet from the temporary project site. The permanent project will include a floodgate that can be closed when the Atchafalaya River reaches 7 feet and is forecasted to rise.
Leaders hope to begin construction of the permanent project in April 2017 when Restore Act funds from the BP oil spill settlement become available.
Also at the meeting, Commission President Bill Hidalgo said the levee district has found errors in a report that landowner Avoca LLC had done, alleging that the district understated how much the permanent Bayou Chene project would hurt Avoca Island.
In November 2015, Avoca filed a lawsuit in district court against the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources requesting the department rescind the levee district’s Bayou Chene project permit. In its lawsuit against DNR, Avoca said that DNR did not have the information needed to properly evaluate the Bayou Chene project’s impacts to surrounding property when it issued the permit.
The levee district made a preliminary response Wednesday to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on the report.
The report alleged that the permanent project would harm 371 acres on Avoca Island with the floodgate in operation.
Significant portions of Avoca Island are underwater even when the river levels are low, Matte said. Levee district leaders also disagree with the methodology of using three selective years to determine the impact to the island, Matte said.
“I believe that they’re trying to argue an impact when there really isn’t one from the structure,” Matte said. “Mother Nature has made an impact on their island when the river’s high, but not from the structure.”
The district is preparing a more formal response that it will submit to the Corps regarding the report, Matte said.
The Daily Review called an Avoca representative for comment on the report, but hadn’t received a call back as of 11 a.m. Friday.
During the meeting, the commission approved the district’s annual millage rate of 5 mills. Due to an increase in assessed property values, the district would have had to drop its millage rate to 4.99 mills to stay revenue neutral. By rolling forward the rate, Matte expects the district to collect about $6,200 more this year.