Improving drainage in Bayou Vista

Bayou Vista is getting improvements to its drainage that should help alleviate street flooding during heavy rain.
Workers are boring under U.S. 90 to install a new 36-inch diameter culvert beneath the highway to create more room through which water can drain in Bayou Vista, St. Mary Parish Chief Administrative Officer Henry “Bo” LaGrange said. The existing culvert will be left in place next to the new one, he said.
A new culvert will increase the drainage capacity of water flowing from the Jupiter Street drainage ditch to the ditch on the south side of U.S. 90 along the railroad tracks, LaGrange said.
The Arlington Street and Belleview Street area has traditionally experienced street flooding during heavy rains, and an extra drainage culvert should solve some of those flooding problems, he said.
Project contractor, Southern Constructers of New Iberia, began work about three weeks ago on the 45-day project, LaGrange said.
St. Mary Parish leaders identified the need for the project in the parish’s hazard mitigation plan, LaGrange said. In the 1960s, the existing drainage culvert was installed under U.S. 90 at the same time workers constructed the highway, he said.
Parish officials are using hazard mitigation grant money to partly fund the project in addition to parish funds, he said. The total project cost is $340,000.
As work on the Bayou Vista drainage project continues, weather forecasters say rain is moving into the area.
Forecasters expect the area to get about ½ inch to 1 inch of rain Wednesday and Thursday, National Weather Service meteorologist Donald Jones said. Most of the rain should leave the Tri-City area by late Thursday, Jones said.
There is a 20 percent chance of storms tonight. The rain chance increases Wednesday with a 40 percent chance of showers followed by a 60 percent chance of thunderstorms during the day and a 50 percent chance of storms Wednesday night, according to the National Weather Service website.
Showers are likely Thursday, at 60 percent, before the storm chance drops to 30 percent Thursday night and Friday, the forecast shows. A 20 percent chance of storms follows Friday night, while the rain should disappear Saturday with partly sunny weather.
A stray shower or thunderstorm may come back Sunday, though, Jones said.