Reaches K, L provide link to Lafourche ring levee
May 16, 2012
Louisianans seek mitigation reform
May 16, 2012
Before Hurricane Katrina tormented Louisiana in 2005, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ price to build hurricane levees was steep, but somewhat doable with the right local and state budgeting, combined with help from the federal government.
After the storm left the area? Everything changed.
Thanks to what local officials describe as “unrealistic” safety regulations and a lack of national funds to pool into the project, our area’s leaders are having to scramble to get bang for their buck in order to keep the Morganza-to-the-Gulf project progressing.
“The corps got a lot of criticism after Katrina because of some of their failures, especially the floodwalls in New Orleans,” said Reggie Dupre, Terrebonne Parish Levee and Conservation District executive director. “Because of all of that national and worldwide criticism, the corps now has adopted such conservative building standards, which are very expensive. If you can afford to build them, you have a better chance of it not failing. But we’re not in that situation. We had to get moving. We had to be a little creative.”
Initially, the corps estimated that the Morganza-to-the-Gulf project would cost in the ballpark of $800 million.
After further studies and a series of dangerous storms, which lifted the corps’ standards on levees, that price estimate rose to a whopping $8 billion.
“That’s just unattainable,” Terrebonne Parish Levee Board President Tony Alford said. “We can’t come up with our 35 percent of that. Those estimates really led us to the realization of, ‘OK, it’s time we put our nose to the grindstone.’”
Unable to keep up with the corps’ prices, local leaders decided they’d build as much of the levee as they could on their own.
Combining local and state dollars, the Morganza project has been funded to this point with very little federal aid.
South Lafourche Levee District General Manager Windell Curole said following the corps standards would be nice, but the Tri-parish area has to have a sense of urgency about getting protection.
“The corps looks at it as, ‘Build it this way or build nothing,’” Curole said. “Well, we can’t just sit back and not build anything when we know we can at least improve ourselves. We don’t claim we’re perfect or fool proof. Hell, even if we built it just like the corps wanted, I wouldn’t tell people that we can’t flood. But the way we build, I can say we’re better off than we were yesterday.”
By doing things on their own, local entities have ducked the corps’ steep standards and hiring regulations.
“The corps has a bunch of rules that Congress puts on them,” Curole said. “There’s fair labor laws, there’s minority hiring rules – there’s just all kinds of crazy rules. That’s Congress. It’s crazy people all over the country with these congressmen and women all over.
“We, on the other hand, get to be like people who are trying to build flood protection at the best price.”
By doing so, local leaders have also learned that their way is, in many cases, more price efficient.
Dupre said one factor in that process, ironically, is the national recession.
The official said contractors are hired at cheaper prices because of a lack of work elsewhere in the Southeast.
“Contractors have slowed down tremendously, so we’re getting much more competitive pricing,” Dupre said. “That’s a big factor in this – what the economy is doing. Compare that to 2006 and 2007 when everybody was rebuilding everything in New Orleans. I can remember in 2006, you couldn’t get a contractor to bid everything in Terrebonne Parish. They were too busy in New Orleans.”
A little bit of sheer intuition and know-how is also in play.
Alford boasted the fact that the Houma Navigational Canal floodgate is expected to be completed at a price of approximately $60 million.
The corps estimated that project to cost well more than that amount.
“That, in a nutshell, is the benefit of doing this yourself,” Alford said. “If we’d have followed their estimates, we’d be at a standstill. Instead, we’re in the process of building it and saving Terrebonne Parish.”
Something is better than nothing – that seems to be the motto represented by everyone in power to make decisions.
Sure, it may take a blank check to create a super levee.
But sometimes all it takes is a couple extra inches to survive a storm and a hurricane season.
“We’re fighting a battle that is a game of inches,” Curole said. “It’s all about surviving long enough until the wind changes direction. If it takes a couple inches here or a few feet there to do it, then that’s what we’ll do.
“It’s like a football team. Sure, we’d love to have a team full of first rounders. But sometimes, it’s the fourth and fifth round picks that make up the team. We’re just making it work with the resources we have. We have no other choice.”
