T’bonne exec looks for levee improvements with $19 million

With the threat of excessive amounts of water reaching into Terrebonne Parish, the government has been working to update various levee systems throughout the parish, including the western side of Bayou Dularge.

At last Wednesday’s Terrebonne Parish Levee District meeting, Parish President Michel Claudet approached the board about allocating $19 million to levee improvement, but he needs suggestions.

“The parish president asked for suggestions on what to do with the $19 million Community Development Block Grant (CDBG ), which he planned to spend in the Dularge area,” said Reggie Dupre, levee district director.

Residents expressed concerns to Claudet that building a levee on the community’s west side before protecting the east side might cause more flooding problems.

“People don’t want to elevate the levee unless they have further protection,” he said.

“We feel concentrating on the east side of Dularge where all the tidal surges come from would make more sense than building anything on the west side of the bridge,” Dupre said. “It would be much more beneficial in the short run.”

Claudet also said that any recommendations for the project would have to be made as soon as possible, since there would have to be a public hearing on it first before heading to the parish council and the levee district for approval.

“We don’t want to wait too long because every CDBG project has a 6-month bid to go through environmental review,” Claudet said. The environmental review process is still going on for the Thompson Road Extension Project, another levee improvement project that will benefit residents of East Houma.

“The land further away from the bayous in Terrebonne, such as between Bayou Grand Caillou and Bayou Petit Caillou, often is lower in elevation and therefore can be subject to tidal flooding in southern parts of the parish,” said James Geihsler, project manager for Shaw’s Environmental & Infrastructure Group. “The proposed project is situated between these two bayous and will benefit East Houma upon completion.”

Dupre said the Thompson Road project is similar to what will be done with the area by Bayou Dularge, and will help combat the storm surges that overwhelmed the levee system during Hurricane Ike.

“Having that section of the Falgout Canal between Bayou Dularge over to the Dulac pontoons that our agency raised up would be really of great benefit of the connecting levees,” he said.

Recommendations for the use of the $19 million will be submitted to the Terrebonne Levee District as soon as the Finance Committee and Planning and Projects Committee come up with a proposal.