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Houma’s Downtown Marina is considered an area of pride among public parks in Terrebonne Parish. The only problem with the area under flyover twin spans of La. Highway 24, is that the park stops at the Intracoastal Waterway, with no semblance of it continuing into Houma’s east side. That is beginning to change.
Turn left off Grand Caillou Road, after crossing the lift bridge and entering the span, then notice a new sidewalk running parallel with Bayou Terrebonne as it reaches toward a spot where four picnic tables will soon stand in close proximity to concrete remnants of the old Park Avenue draw bridge at Oak Street.
Walk along Park Avenue between St. Michel Avenue and the Intracoastal Waterway and see where crews are cutting lines for flowerbeds and other landscaping.
The seven-block stretch that for years saw little positive activity other than weeds being mowed to control the insect population is being transformed into usable and ascetically pleasing space.
If one elected official has her way, once both sides of the bayou are complete, the unnamed eastside park will be a continuation of what westside residents, along with employees and visitors to Terrebonne General Medical Center, enjoy on a daily basis.
“Look at this. You can see how nice it will be,” said Terrebonne Parish Councilwoman Christa Duplantis during a walkthrough tour of the developing park. “We have this great walking space. We have new lights. We are going to have trees and flowers and some benches and people on the eastside will have what is over there.”
As construction and landscaping crews worked at their tasks of transformation the councilwoman talked about how a long-time dream is becoming a reality.
“When I was a kid, I grew up on the westside and played on Pecan Street,” Duplantis said. “The eastside seemed so far away. Now I know it is not far at all, and I understand how people over here have felt forgotten while the westside got that beautiful park.”
This stretch of Duplantis’ Dist. 5 reaches into neighborhoods many residents not living in the area might have associated as being part of the minority- predominant Dist. 1, although the two districts are neighbors on both sides of the Intracoastal Waterway and each can boast having a racially and culturally diverse character.
Duplantis had planted the seeds for park development during her previous long-standing stent on the parish council. She was termed out of office in 2007. Johnny Pizzolatto was elected to fill that position and served Dist. 5 from 2008 until being unseated by Duplantis in 2011.
The process of developing the extended park continued during the time Duplantis was out of office. It was designated an enhancement for a Department of Transportation and Development project filed in July 2007.
The application took almost five years to gain state approval and progress to the point of having a 1,860-foot-long sidewalk constructed during May of this year.
The project was adopted and presented as a DOTD city-state agreement with Terrebonne Parish Consolidated Government in March 2010. Part of the deal involved a 5 percent match to the state for funding.
Along with the sidewalk, the $230,000 enhancement grant includes landscaping, instillation of park benches and tables and two limestone parking lots (one before Ash Street and the other at Oak Street).
Duplantis talked with crews of Hard Rock Construction, which secured low bid at $199,817 during her morning tour and learned that shells and concrete under the visual ground surface have slowed work.
Originally, the base project was to be complete by June 12, but problems with soil compensation and ground water will bump that deadline into July or August.
The delay is no problem for those that want the job done right. “The one thing the residents on this side did not want was the actual marina,” Duplantis said. “So we are not having that.”
Duplantis said her goals include fully developing the park on both sides of Bayou Terrebonne and lining the waterway with bulkheads.
“I want to have a decorative fence along the bulkhead and a boardwalk for people,” the councilwoman said. “Toward the end of the bridges, we are going to have giant murals that depict the culture and mean something to the residents of this area.”
Pete Songe grew up living on Park Avenue, directly across from where much of the park work is taking place. Although he now lives on the west side, he still takes care of his mother’s home and is glad to see improvements to the area.
“I think it is a good thing,” Songe said. “It is long overdue for the east side, but I’m glad to see it taking place. The only problem we have is the truck route [turning off Park Avenue onto Peach Street]. They will need to do something about that.”
Duplantis said like many small communities that dried up after nearby interstate highways took traffic from state and U.S. highways during the 1960s, the flyover twin spans, while helping both marine and road traffic, had an adverse impact to ground-level living in this area. Now that is being changed as community leaders and residents make the most of what they have.
“We just need to beautify the area to bring it back,” Duplantis said.”When you have a nice park it draws commerce and other good things. My vision on the east is to have what we have on the west. Once we are done it will be something we can be proud of.”
Terrebonne Parish Dist. 5 Councilwoman Christa Duplantis describes what she pictures for developing a stretch of her district that reaches into east Houma. Construction has begun to build a park along Bayou Terrebonne under the twin spans.
