Key portion of Bayou Chene ready for bids

The St. Mary Parish Levee District board met Thursday for the last time in a year marked by a major flood and a minor hurricane. Members heard about progress on multimillion dollar projects designed to protect against both.
The projects are the Bayou Teche flood gate and the permanent Bayou Chene control structure.
The $11 million Bayou Teche project has been awarded to Sealevel Construction Inc. of Thibodaux.
The floodgate at the junction of the Teche and the Charenton Canal is designed to prevent storm surge flooding. St. Mary got a taste of storm surge when Hurricane Barry, a marginal Category 1 storm, hit the area July 13.
Construction is due to begin on the same day Mardi Gras season begins: Jan 6. The project was conceived as a way to protect the Franklin-Garden City-Centerville area.
The subcontractor charged with building the barge needed for the Teche project is Bollinger in Amelia, adding a couple of million dollars to the local economy, said Levee District Executive Director Tim Matte.
The Bayou Chene flood control project is a solution to the back-flooding that occurs when the Atchafalaya River system runs high. The 2019 flooding, which lasted for months in the spring and summer, forced officials to order the sinking of a barge in the bayou for the third time since 2011.
The $80 million Bayou Chene project will be a permanent structure that will eliminate the need for a barge to be towed to and sunk in the bayou to protect homes in lower St. Martin and surrounding parishes.
The board heard Thursday that requests for bids are about to go out for Phase 2, the most expensive part of the project at an estimated cost of more than $30 million. It includes the bulk of the structure.
Phase 1 included clearing land along the Tabor Canal near the project site, work that is nearly complete, and dredging in that area.
Phase 3 is a barge for the structure. Phase 4 is a levee atop the Tabor Canal banks.
Also Thursday, the Levee District board approved an amended budget for calendar 2019 and a budget for 2020.
The district expects general revenue of about $2.9 million next year, the bulk of it from $2.8 million in property tax income. The district expects general fund spending to be about $1.9 million.
The biggest anticipated expenditures are $300,000 for grass cutting, $200,000 each for flood control materials and flood control labor, $150,000 for limestone maintenance, $126,200 for wages, and $125,000 for flood control operation and maintenance.
The capital projects budget is complicated by the timing of funding and reimbursement from the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority and other state sources and by outlays for the big-ticket projects.
In 2020, the capital budget is expected to get $26.9 million in revenue while it carries $36.5 million in spending for the Bayou Teche, Bayou Chene and Yokely Levee Extension projects.
The difference will consume about $10.6 million of the $13.7 million capital fund balance as of the end of 2019.