Floodgate permits secured

Approximately 90 minutes before the final session of 2010 for the Terrebonne Levee and Conservation District Board of Commissioners, the agency’s executive director, Reggie Dupre, received notice that a much-awaited federal building permit had been secured for construction of floodgates and receiving walls on the Houma Navigational Canal.

The announcement turned the meeting’s tone from one of simply conducting business to one of celebration, which included comments from parish and state government officials regarding the first hurricane protection effort and the largest construction project in Louisiana to be undertaken and paid for without the use of federal funds.

“We’ll be pursuing construction and moving ahead at this meeting to get this thing rolling,” said board Chairman Anthony Alford, as he set a tone for the agenda. “Everybody in this room really worked hard to make this happen.”

“This January will be two years since we applied for the permit which encompasses the Houma Navigational Canal floodgate, the Bayou Grand Caillou floodgate, the Reach F Levee System and the G-1 [levee development area],” said state Rep. Gordon Dove (R-Houma).

Terrebonne Parish residents paid $49 million into the project from sales taxes, which along with state money will pay for the work. “We started this … jumped hurdles … and the day of reckoning finally came. I think this project will surpass any project in the United States as being funded without federal funds,” Dove said.

Dupre addressed those in attendance and told them that the deadline for Congress and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to have a hurricane protection plan in place is Jan. 1, 2011.

“It all came together after the 2008 hurricanes. We have to give credit to ourselves. While the federal government continues to re-evaluate the federal side of [the] Morganza [project] we will build the inter Morganza on our own as best as we can and as efficiently as we can. With this permit that we received today we are allowed to do $120 million of work on two miles of levee and [construct] two huge floodgates,” he said.

Dupre had said prior to the meeting that if the permits were secured construction on the Houma Navigational Canal floodgates could begin in spring 2011. The full Morganza project is scheduled for completion by 2015.

The Morganza-to-the-Gulf project is a hurricane protection system for Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes. Dupre had explained that while the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is the federal sponsor for this work, the Louisiana Department of Transportation and the Terrebonne Levee and Conservation District serve as local sponsors. Once construction has been completed the Terrebonne Levee and Conservation District will provide operations and maintenance to the system.