By: Sean Ellis, HoumaToday.com
March 1, 2016
http://www.houmatoday.com/article/20160301/ARTICLES/160309988
Terrebonne Parish is continuing its work to build a ring of redundant levees inside the Morganza-to-the-Gulf Levee System with a four-mile levee on the Dulac side of Lake Boudreaux.
The parish is working to close an opening in the levees from south of the Terrebonne Parish Criminal Justice Complex on Grand Caillou Road to the Bobtown Bridge.
“Morganza should protect Lake Boudreaux during a storm event, but in case Morganza is ever over topped or just with a heavy rain where the lake swells up, you need those redundant levees,” Terrebonne Parish president Gordy Dove said.
As a parish project, the onus fell on the local government to get the ball rolling on this stretch of levee, something that Dove jumped on as soon as he was elected in November, he said.
The levee carries an estimated $10 million price tag, which includes the mitigation that needs to be done when levees are built. The parish is working to get the project to the point that bids on the work are ready to be sent out, Dove said.
Other levee projects have been completed or are under construction around the Lake Boudreaux area.
In 2015, a levee was completed from the east Houma Surge Levee to Ashland Landfill Road. Meanwhile on the Chauvin side of the first phase of the Ward 7 Levee is nearing completion. The other phases are set to be completed or started in the coming months.
The new levee and upgrades will give residents additional protection from Lake Boudreaux, which has seen sever erosion in recent years increase the risk of flooding during storms.
Parish officials are also completing upgrades to levees in Bayou Black with only a four-mile section left to be done, Dove said.
