Lafourche levee work to carry hefty price tag

After receiving preliminary figures last year on the cost to raise the 48 miles of ring levee from Larose to below Golden Meadow, the South Lafourche Levee District unveiled more precise figures at last week’s meeting in Galliano.

As expected, the numbers were quite high.

The cost to raise the levees and associated “hard structures” such as pump stations and floodwalls to a height of 15 feet on the southern end of the system and 12 feet on the northern end in Larose carries a cost of $110 million.

To raise the entire levee system, and associated “hard structures” to a uniform height of 18 feet above sea level carries a hefty cost of $465 million.

With such a staggering cost to improve the system, levee district general manager Windell Curole said work on the levees will be done as funds become available. “We will prioritize our work and improve the system in its weak spots first,” he said.

Curole noted that the system is sturdiest on each end with concerns typically emerging in the middle of the system.

Areas that need to be addressed first include the Clovelly area on the east side of Bayou Lafourche and the Bully Camp area on the west side of the bayou. With the $4 million appropriation in one of last year’s supplemental spending bills, the district, in conjunction with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, is funding work currently going on in various parts of the levee system.

The levee district receives $2.5 million annually from millages and stands to receive some $4.5 million annually from a recently approved one-cent sales tax. The district has also requested $10 million a year for the next five years from the state to spend on levee improvements.

“We are going to search every avenue we can for funding to improve our situation,” Curole said.

As funds become available, Curole said that raising levees will take precedence over work on the “hard structures” because levees make up the most significant portion of the system.

“There are nearly 48 miles of levee and less than one mile of floodwalls. Therefore, we will raise the levees first because that will provide the most protection for the community,” he said.

Curole also noted that the areas around the floodwalls will be armored so that they will not collapse from the pressure of oncoming flood surges.

“If water comes into the system, it’s better for it to overtop a small segment of floodwall for a few hours than to come over a levee segment. That would mean overtopping of a much smaller area than should a levee segment give way,” he said.

Curole acknowledged that the object is to always be better off today than you were the day before. “Are we (the levee system) better off today than we were yesterday? If that answer is always yes, even by a fraction, we stand a better chance of not flooding when the next storm event heads our way,” he reasoned.