Work on Ward 7 Levee reaches halfway mark

Work building up the Ward 7 Levee in Chauvin should be complete in early August, according to a parish official.

Jerome Zeringue, executive director and secretary of the Terrebonne Parish Levee and Conservation District, said the project is about 50 percent complete.

Workers are raising the levee to eight feet, he explained.

With the 2007 hurricane season quickly approaching, Zeringue said the project should be complete by the peak of the storm season.

Following Hurricane Rita, the Ward 7 Levee, which protects Chauvin for the most part, suffered 36 major levee breaches as well as water overtopping.

In a recent briefing before the Terrebonne Parish Council, Zeringue said workers are putting the final touches on the levee section in lower Chauvin. Work on the levee’s upper portion should be finished by August, he said.

Highlights of the work include:

• 17, 500 cubic yards of dirt has been stockpiled to date in the Victory Street area.

• Workers are presently stockpiling 1,200-1,500 cubic yards of dirt per day on Oleander Street area and, as of April 25, more than 9,000 cubic yards of dirt have been stockpiled.

• Construction is set for Aug. 10 on the Lashbrook to Bayou Neuf project.

• With work at the halfway mark, Zeringue said 22 percent of the budgeted construction cost has been used.

Monies for building up Ward 7 Levee n approximately $2 million n from the bayou Neuf to the Lashbrook pump station are included in a $10 million bond sale set for today.

Voters OK’d the bond sale in 2004 as part of a ballot item to sell $20 million in bonds. Money from the sale is to be split to fund drainage projects ($9 million); road and bridge repairs ($6 million); and sewerage repairs ($4 million).

In another hurricane-related topic, the parish administration is preparing to review a “sister parish” concept that will be employed during emergencies.

Parish officials recently met with Rapides Police Jury officials to consider using the old emergency preparedness building in Rapides Parish if Terrebonne Parish was under the threat of a major hurricane.

“Preliminary discussions of our use of the building is to provide Terrebonne Parish officials and employees with uninterrupted phone and computer communications,” Parish Comptroller Jamie Elfert wrote in a memo to administrators.