St. Mary will get at least $75 million in infrastructure, hurricane aid targeting the coast

More than $2.6 billion is coming to Louisiana through the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from the infrastructure bill passed by Congress in November and in federal Hurricane Ida recovery money. St. Mary Parish is in line for more than $75 million.
A funding breakdown of coastal, flood control and waterways projects funding in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the hurricane funding was released Wednesday by the office of U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge.
It includes more than $643 million for Louisiana in coastal and flood protection work. In that figure are $379 million for the Morganza-to-the-Gulf Hurricane Protection System, $125 million for southwest coastal Louisiana hurricane protection and $52.9 million for the Atchafalaya Basin. The money is being allocated through the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
“Louisiana communities have waited years, sometimes decades, to see progress on Army Corps projects,” Cassidy said. “This funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Package is crucial to protect our state against future Hurricanes and floods. Looking forward to the additional ways the bipartisan infrastructure bill will benefit our state.”
The Hurricane Ida supplemental funding amounts to about $2 billion for Louisiana.
It’s not yet clear exactly how much of the money earmarked for Louisiana will be spent in St. Mary. Some of the items combine projects in multiple jurisdictions under a single appropriation. Some are not clear about whether the funding will pay for some or all of the proposed work.
One of the items listed specifically is “construction of the Charenton Floodgate,” one of several projects grouped together under an $85 million appropriation in the hurricane relief funding.
The flood gate construction is expected to cost about $42 million, said Tim Matte, executive director of the St. Mary Levee District.
The gate sits between two earthen levees and once allowed access to the Atchafalaya from Bayou Teche. But the gate was welded shut in advance of a 2011 flood and has never been reopened, Matte said. The gate is also lower than either of the two levees it connects.
The same item in the Hurricane Ida funding breakdown includes improvements on levees to the south and north of Berwick and in the Verdunville area. The work south of Berwick may include a widening of the levee, which is too narrow to accommodate more elevation, Matte said.
Infrastructure act funding also earmarks $10 million to connect the east and west portions of the Bayou Sale levee beneath the La. 317 bridge, where there’s currently a gap.
The funding through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act targets dredging in the area in and around the Port of Morgan City, which is already seeing substantial progress in clearing waterways clogged with sediment by a series of floods going back at least to 2015.
The Corps funding includes about $33.1 million for “Dredging and Surveys of Lower Bar, Bay, Upper Bar, Bayou Chene, Boeuf and Black.”
Another $9.9 million will go to “damage repairs to levee slides at two locations; dredging of shoaling near Morgan City/Three Rivers, LA and at Berwick Bay Harbor; and replacement of levee surfacing along the Berwick Levee.”
That’s on top of continuing funding for the removal of fluff mud between Eugene Island and the sea buoy by the Brice Civil Constructors dredge Arulak as well as work by three different dredging vessels on local waterways in recent months.
The Biden administration budget for this year contained $16.3 million for the Port of Morgan City. Port Executive Director Raymond “Mac” Wade said that appropriation is about twice the usual amount, but still falls short of the port’s dredging needs. Major dredging projects can easily run to $10 million or more.
The last seven years have been a struggle to open the main port channel to its authorized dimensions of 20 feet deep by 400 feet wide. Shoaling since 2015 has largely kept large cargo vessels, and the import-export business they bring with them, out of the port.
“We asked for more money,” Wade said. “We were hoping for more. But we’re glad we got what we got. ..."
“This is very good. This is the best we’ve ever done.”