Thibodaux half-cent sales tax increase heads to vote in 2016
September 9, 2015
Lafourche taking steps to stop wetlands loss
September 9, 2015
Construction of a permanent $107 million flood control structure could begin as early as 2016, which will prevent backwater flooding in Gibson and decrease the impact of tidal surges moving through the intracoastal waterway.
Plans call for a 250-foot wide floating barge gate with a braced sheet pile wall to be built on Avoca Island, near Morgan City. It will be built on Continental Land’s property in Terrebonne Parish.
The barge will extend 375 feet in each direction.
The state Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority is funding the project.
State Sen. Bret Allain said the money is available as a result of settlements with BP in the wake of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion and subsequent oil spill.
A temporary structure was erected in 2011 in Bayou Chene to keep floodwater from impacting west Terrebonne. The sunken barge was needed after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers opened the Morganza Spillway. That year, the Mississippi River experienced a surge last seen in the Great Flood of 1927.
Terrebonne Parish President Michel Claudet said a corps colonel told him, “We’re not going to help you. You have to do what’s necessary.”
“That’s when this parish build 18 miles of levees quicker than anyone had ever seen,” Claudet said.
Terrebonne teamed with St. Mary Parish officials to sink the barge.
The makeshift effort prevented four feet of water from pouring into Terrebonne, according to Reggie Dupre, director of the parish’s levee district board.
“Its work was impressive,” Dupre said of the sunken barge. “So much so that the 18 miles of levees that Michel had constructed were almost redundant because the barge was situated at the primary line of impact.”
State Rep. Gordon Dove hailed the project for Terrebonne.
“Studies are a thing of the past – we are building now and we’re going to continue to build,” he said.
State Rep. Joe Harrison described the fight for flood protection as a unified effort.
“This effort is because of everyone who stood in the doorway.” Allain said the project is still “very early in the process.”
“However, three years ago, this project wasn’t even in the state’s overall plan for coastal protection. To have a commitment for funding in hand this quickly is a testament to hard work”
The 2011 flood threat proved to be the ultimate case study, Allain said. “This project has proved its worth. I’m very glad the state has recognized the same.”
