Corps to parish: Dulac levees will be complete on time

The seven miles of levee in Dulac being constructed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will be completed on schedule, a corps representative told the Terrebonne Parish Council last week.

Sheila McCarthy, a project manager with the corps’ St. Louis (Mo.) District, said the levee’s three-mile north section from Bobtown Bridge to Lake Boudreaux will be substantially complete by today. North section contractor Southern Services & Equipment of New Orleans is expected to finish the work by June 12.

Construction on the south section of the levee, which runs from Lake Boudreaux to Orange Street, will be delayed at least a month but will still be finished by early July, McCarthy said. The portion is around 80 percent complete.

South section contractor L&S/CKY of Metairie unexpectedly encountered marsh mud at the southern tip of the levee. An additional 100,000 cubic yards of material needed to be hauled to the site to replace portions lost to the lake.

“We were building on water,” McCarthy said.

When finished, the levees in Dulac will be eight feet high, reaching at least six feet by the start of hurricane season.

U.S. Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) spearheaded a protracted effort to allocate $30 million in federal funding to build the levee, which will cost more than $12 million to construct. At a signing ceremony in Houma in December, corps representatives promised a June completion date.

The levee will be part of the Morganza-to-the-Gulf hurricane protection system, approved by Congress in the Water Resources Development Act in 2007. However, funding for the Dulac levees was included in an unrelated bill.

Tony Alford, president of the Terrebonne Levee District board, told the council that the Morganza project is being undertaken at an expedited rate.

The board is funding the building of the Morganza system. Congress could reimburse the district for the cost.

Alford told the parish council that the height of several floodgates on waterways in Terrebonne, including ones on the Falgout, Bush and Placid canals, could be raised from 15 feet to 18 feet.

He said a change order was needed to complete design work on stretches of Morganza levee that will require additional funding.

The council gave informal verbal support for the added work. The issue will be sent to a council committee and was considered at a special council meeting yesterday.

Also at last week’s meeting, Al Levron, capital projects administrator with the Parish Public Works Department, was nominated to be Terrebonne’s new parish manager, replacing interim appointment Pat Gordon.

Parish President Michel Claudet said Planning Director Gordon will be occupied handling the $120 million in federal Community Development Block Grant funds coming into Terrebonne for hurricane relief.

“Pat Gordon has done a great job as parish manager,” Claudet said. “He has agreed to work with planning to get us through these tough times.”

Levron’s appointment will be voted on by the council next week.

The council ratified the appointment of Janel Ricca as the new director of the Houma-Terrebonne Civic Center, replacing David Ohlmeyer.

At the recommendation of parish bond attorney Jerry Osborne, the council postponed approving the issuance of sales tax revenue bonds until lower rates can be obtained. Osborne said the lower rates will be available soon.

Councilman Kevin Voisin passed a motion asking the local state legislative delegation to look into the discharging of mentally ill patients from Chabert Medical Center who had been transferred from other hospitals. Chabert contains 24 psychiatric beds.