Morganza Reach H-3 dedicated

Local, state and federal officials gathered Friday to officially announce construction of the first new levee reach, of what will become the 72-mile Morganza-to-the-Gulf hurricane-protection system, in nearly two years.

Construction crews began work in February on H-3, a three-mile, $6.9 million segment that stretches between the Bush and Placid canals. Terrebonne Levee and Conservation District Board President Tony Alford said the segment of levee is being elevated to a little over 10 feet. It will connect to the existing parish levee, Reach I, located near the Bayou Petit Caillou Floodgate.

“With the parish levee already in place, it makes it a lot cheaper and easier to connect the Morganza system,” Alford explained.

Officials gathered at Sportsman’s Paradise, a lower Chauvin restaurant and hotel that has been repeatedly flooded by previous hurricanes.

“If there is one thing everyone is in complete agreement on, it’s that flood protection is the No. 1 priority for this parish,” said Terrebonne Parish President Michel Claudet. “If we lose our people, we lose our culture, and we lose everything.”

The H-3 levee is part of an interim system of levees along the Morganza alignment, built exclusively with local and state dollars.

The system will become part of the final Morganza-to-the-Gulf project – a $2.5 billion endeavor that will incorporate higher-elevated levees, floodgates and environmental structures allowing water to flow between interior and exterior marshes.

In the past 15 years, officials have studied the larger system extensively to outline an alignment that gives the parish the greatest amount of protection. Congress authorized the Morganza alignment in the 2007 Water Resources Development Act.

Before constructing the interim system, Terrebonne’s levee district divided Morganza into 10 parts called reaches. Each reach, which will stand about 10 feet high when complete, has to be designed, engineered and approved by the federal government and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers before being constructed, said Alford.

“We have to go after the environmental/regulatory permits at the state and federal government level for all the work that is being suggested by the levee district,” he said. “By doing this, we are meeting the criteria of the Corps of Engineers and not jeopardizing ourselves to where we won’t get matching funds for the project from the state and federal government.”

Morganza Project Manager Elaine Stark also spoke at the dedication ceremony saying that the Corps will “carefully and formally” review the levee district’s work to ensure the levees can eventually become part of the federal Morganza-to-the-Gulf system.

A couple of years ago, the levee district constructed a portion of Morganza near Montegut called Reach J-1. The cost to the levee district was $18 million, according to state Sen. Reggie Dupre (D-Bourg), who will take over as Terrebonne Levee and Conservation District director in July.

Crews are currently building H-3’s base near Placid Canal north. Thirty percent of the project is already finished, ahead of the projected deadline, said Hilary Thibodeaux, project manager with Shaw Coastal Inc.

“To see a levee out there is a beautiful thing,” said Oneil Malbrough, president of the Louisiana offices of Shaw Coastal Inc. The levee, in his opinion, is Terrebonne’s way of fighting to keep the coastal paradise from disappearing.

Within the next four years, the levee district hopes to have 32 miles of interim levees complete at a cost of $87 million.