CPRA provides $2.7 million for La. 70 levee project

Work to raise a stretch of La. 70 by Lake End Park and tie the highway into Morgan City’s levee system will soon begin. The Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority is providing $2.7 million toward engineering, design and construction costs, according to a news release.

St. Mary Parish Consolidated Gravity Drainage District 2 awarded the $2.7 million construction contract to Barriere Construction of Metairie, and work is expected to begin in October, the release said. This segment is part of the $18 million Morgan City Levee Improvements Project to raise city levees and certify them for 100-year storm surge protection.

Completion of the entire levee project and subsequent certification of the levees will allow Morgan City property owners to avoid potentially huge increases in flood insurance premiums.

This effort is part of the parish master plan for comprehensive improvements to the Morgan City levee system to provide a 100-year level of flood protection, and is consistent with CPRA’s Coastal Master Plan goals and principles, the release said.

“CPRA is pleased to provide funding to St. Mary Parish in support of continued work necessary to achieve 100-year level of flood protection,” CPRA Chairman Johnny Bradberry said in the release. “When we combine efforts and resources, great things happen.”

In collaboration with the St. Mary Parish Government and the St. Mary Levee District, St. Mary Consolidated Gravity Drainage District 2 is managing this project to increase protection and sustainability by adding elevation to a half-mile stretch of land beneath the road bed of La. 70, an important evacuation route that serves as a levee near Lake End Park, the release said.

Located at the southern end of the Atchafalaya Basin Floodway, St. Mary Parish is in danger of inundation when water is diverted into the basin to relieve pressure on Mississippi River levees. Additionally, storm water runoffs from the Atchafalaya and Lake Verret basins, as well as storm surge from the Gulf of Mexico, pose a risk to people, property and industry, the release said.

“I’m proud of the cooperation and teamwork of the parish, the levee district, the drainage district and the state CPRA,” Parish President David Hanagriff said in the release. “This is a model for how, working together, we can get things done.”

CPRA is working with St. Mary Parish Consolidated Gravity District 2 on other increments of levee improvement, including currently providing $6.2 million for the engineering, design, and construction of a 2.5-mile levee stretch immediately south of the La. 70 improvement project. The 2.5-mile stretch is now under construction and scheduled for completion next spring.

Officials haven’t yet come up with a plan to provide flood protection for Lakeside Subdivision, which isn’t included in the $18 million cost of the project. With the exception of the Lakeside project and installation of a new pump station by Lake End Park, Drainage District Chairman Lee Dragna expects the rest of the Morgan City levee project to be complete in the second quarter of 2018.

In March, voters approved the drainage district to issue $6.25 million in bonds to help pay for construction of the new pump station.