Industrial Boulevard closed for Chabert levee construction

The levee being built along Industrial Boulevard in East Houma will protect the subdivisions north of the roadway as well as Chabert Medical Center, said Clay Breaud with GSE Associates, project manager for the Chabert levee.

The construction is causing the closing of a 300-foot section of Industrial Boulevard until Monday, Nov. 2. Through traffic on the boulevard will be halted until after Monday, but access to Chabert is permitted, Breaud said.

Detours are on South Van Avenue and Grand Caillou Road.

“The levee is extremely important for protecting the main plant – it’s lower than the main building – so we can make sure we provide care for the public,” said Donna Pitre, support services director at Chabert.

“We didn’t have flooding from (Hurricane) Gustav but water made it to the back of the mechanical plant,” she said.

Winds from Gustav removed the roof from the sixth floor of Chabert’s mechanical penthouse and elevator penthouse, and five elevators were knocked out. Temporary fixes were put in place until permanent repairs could be made.

The area being closed this week is at the Industrial Boulevard pump station where the levee will cross the roadway. Crews will raise the road from 5 feet above sea level to 8 feet at that location.

Contractors have seven days to complete the stretch of levee, beginning from Monday when work on the section started, Breaud said.

The 8-foot levee will run from Denley Road next to Chabert Medical Center to the Texaco station at South Van Avenue. After partly surrounding Chabert, the levee will follow the south side of Industrial Boulevard and cross to the north at the pump station.

The levee will then run along the railroad corridor on the north side of Industrial Boulevard past Glynn to Van avenues.

Terrebonne Parish is spending $1.7 million to build the Chabert levee, whose total cost is $4.5 million, said Parish Manager Al Levron.

Of the $2.8 million expended by the state on the levee, $500,000 came from the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, which was created in response to hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 to distribute state funds on hurricane protection and wetlands restoration projects.

The remainder came from state capital outlay funds and the LSU Health Sciences Center. Chabert is a member of the center.

Levron said the project will be completed at a lower cost than anticipated. “We will see cost savings that will be used for other projects,” he said.

The Terrebonne Parish Council’s Public Services Committee authorized the building of the levee in August, 2008.

The levee was originally planned to protect only Chabert Medical Center, but was expanded, said former Terrebonne Levee District Director Windell Curole.

At a public meeting in Houma during August this year, Maurice Wolcott with the LSU Agcenter said a hurricane striking Houma from the southwest could flood Chabert Medical Center with four to five feet of water.