James Joseph Whitney Sr.
September 15, 2009
Genevieve D. Carlos
September 17, 2009
Seventy-five million dollars is being spent on levees and barge gates to protect Pointe aux Chenes, said Terrebonne Levee District Director Reggie Dupre at a levee district meeting held last week in the community.
Reach J-1 of the Morganza to the Gulf hurricane protection levee system north of Pointe aux Chenes is almost complete. The reach was authorized in a bill sponsored by former U.S. Rep. Billy Tauzin.
Plans are under way to build the five-mile Reach J-2 from Montegut to Pointe aux Chenes, which Dupre called the most complex of the Morganza reaches because it runs through two marsh management areas.
Keith Meyer with Evans-Graves Engineers said the Pointe aux Chenes tie-in levee, connecting the J-3 levee to the future Bayou Pointe aux Chene floodgate, will be ready for bid as soon as right-of-ways are acquired.
Dupre said Reach J-3 will be brought up to a 10 foot standard. Permits to build the reach will be obtained soon, he said. An alignment for J-3 should be established by January, said Arthur Defraites with Gulf South Engineers.
“This directly affects you,” Dupre told the audience at Pointe aux Chenes Elementary School. “It’s being worked on today, not five years from now. By 2013 we will have most of the $75 million on the ground.”
Elaine Stark, Morganza project manager for the Army Corps of Engineers, said the Corps could join the local effort to build the levee system as early as 2013 if authorization is provided in the Water Resources Development Act in 2012.
Morganza was authorized in the 2007 WRDA bill, but no funds were allocated. In addition, the projected price of the hurricane protection system increased by more than 20 percent of the original estimated cost, triggering an automatic reevaluation.
The current cost estimate to build the 72 miles of levee in Morganza is $2.5 billion.
The original price was expected to be $900,000.
Stark also said Morganza will be constructed with stronger material to prevent scouring.
Tony Alford, president of the Terrebonne Levee District board, said the levee district is not waiting for the Corps to possibly start building Morganza in 2013.
“That’s the reason we (the Terrebonne Levee District) are building now,” Alford said.
He said the levee district does not want to risk potential match money from the Corps for the levees that will be constructed.
“That’s why we’re working hand in hand with the Corps,” Alford said.
The levee district is hopeful Corps money will pay for extending the height and widening the levees built by the levee district.
“We can have a decent system in place in five years,” Alford said. “The Corps set the footprint of the levee, not the Terrebonne Levee District. We don’t want to jeopardize the $2.5 billion but we want something now.”
Dupre said the levee district is planning to build cheaper barge gates on parish waterways. The money saved will be spent on levees.
“We’ve got to design barge gates that cost $14 million instead of $54 million,” Alford said. “It’s not the Cadillac product.”
Barry Fanguy, owner of Pointe aux Chenes Marina, asked about the construction of a rock breakwater to protect his property.
The marina is located just outside the Morganza alignment to the south. Dupre estimated the jetty would need to be 1,500 feet long.
Dupre has set up a meeting next week for Fanguy to meet with Stark.
“It’s not an unreasonable request,” Dupre said. “I don’t know what the Corps will do.”
“(Fanguy’s property is) outside the system. They want to be inside,” Alford said.
Dupre said not enough land exists to place a levee around the marina.
Alford and Dupre both said including all populated areas within the Morganza alignment would have been too expensive.
“It’s impossible to include everyone,” Dupre said. “It’s so expensive to include every piece of property.”
“All of us would like it to go to Cocodrie,” Alford said. “We would like to see it go to Isle de Jean Charles. But it’s cost prohibitive. It keeps us from moving forward.”
“We would like to go to Last Island but it’s cost prohibitive. The alignment has been studied. It’s been agreed upon.”
Alford admits that even he owns property outside of the Morganza alignment.
At last week’s meeting, Terrebonne Parish President Michel Claudet said a federal and state effort is afoot to relocate the 25 or so families remaining on Isle de Jean Charles.
Five-mile reach runs through two local marsh management areas.
