Tourist center to temporarily close for levee work

Parish tourism officials are planning to temporarily close the Cajun Coast Visitors and Convention Bureau Welcome and Interpretative Center in Morgan City because of construction on the Morgan City Levee Improvements Project.
Cajun Coast Executive Director Carrie Stansbury said officials tentatively plan to close the center beginning Feb. 22, when the center will be in a construction zone and pose a safety hazard to potential visitors.
Moving dirt in front of the building should take five to six weeks, Stansbury said. Then, the dirt will take about three months to settle. After that, workers will come back for another five to six weeks to install sheet pilings to raise the levee in front of the center, Stansbury said.
Cajun Coast officials haven’t decided yet whether they will stay out of the building during the three-month period while the dirt is settling. But the center will at least be closed during the two five- to six-week periods of levee work, she said.
Stansbury is still in the process of trying to find a location for Cajun Coast’s administrative staff and travel counselors to work out of in the Morgan City area while the center is closed. Cajun Coast has another visitor’s center in Franklin, located at 15307 U.S. 90 West.
Officials intend to direct Morgan City visitors to the St. Mary Chamber of Commerce office, located on Myrtle Street, where a Cajun Coast official will probably be, she said.
A groundbreaking ceremony will be held on the Lake End Park to Justa Street portion of the Morgan City Levee Improvements Project at noon Tuesday at the Cajun Coast welcome center.
The work is part of an $18 million project to raise Morgan City’s levees to provide 100-year storm surge protection and avoid huge insurance rate increases. With the exception of flood protection for Lakeside Subdivision, the entire levee improvements project is expected to be finished in 2018.