Larose levee system would nix need for sandbagging

Using parish funds, the Lafourche government is working to eliminate makeshift levees in an effort to decrease the possibilities of potential flooding.

The levee system in southern Lafourche has been plagued with flooding due to extremely high tides during hurricane season. Sandbagging has been the conventional means to protect against rising water.

“For years, the parish has been building makeshift levees out of sand bags from the neighboring shipyards,” said Ray Cheramie, the parish’s director of public works. “Now, the parish is building its own levee system using dirt and reusable material from other parish land projects.”

However, building temporary levees is tedious and time-consuming for the parish workers, sheriff’s office trusties and residents who help replace the sandbags annually.

“The sandbags held the water back sometimes and sometimes they didn’t,” Cheramie said. “Every year, we would have to go back and sandbag the area because the bags would dry rot from the sunlight.”

Since his appointment, Cheramie has made it his mission to rid the parish of sandbags for good.

Several dirt-mound levees have been erected in the southern and northern parts of Lafourche.

Permanent levees are situated in Bayou Blue, Gheens and into parts Pointe-Aux-Chene in Terrebonne Parish. And a levee is in the works in Larose, Cheramie said.

According to Lafourche Parish President Charlotte Randolph, the Larose project is being built with parish materials, equipment, funds and manpower.

“With the budget crunch, we don’t have the funds to hire a contractor to come in and build a levee within a six-month or one-year period,” she said.

Work on the Larose levee has been ongoing for nearly three years, Cheramie said. It has been prolonged because the parish has had to haul the dirt and scraps from field offices around the parish.

Prior to this, the parish was buying the dirt and hauling it to Larose. The cost quickly exceeded the amount budgeted. Cheramie said the parish had to resort to other avenues like sweeping out gutters and ditches and stockpiling all the reusable materials at various field offices.

The project got a huge boost two years ago when the owners of a local sugar mill allowed Lafourche to haul as much dirt as needed from the mill site.

“The owners donated several thousand yards of dirt from the sugar mill,” he said. “The parish utilized the dirt to begin making the permanent levees in the parish.”

After it was deemed the donation was illegal, hauling dirt from the mill was halted and the project was slowed.

The Larose levee system has received help from an unexpected source: Street repairs.

Although the parish doesn’t have the money to hire contractors for the levee, it is hiring a contractor to repave parish streets.

Cheramie said the cement panels that contractors break up serve as buffers for the permanent levees.

“Years ago, we would have the contractor who repaved the streets come in an break up the cement panels and then sell it to anyone who wanted to redo their bayou side,” he said.

The parish recently accepted the T-Barr Bridge near Larose and Lockport from the state. The contractor is set to demolish the old bridge.

Cheramie said he hopes the parish can enter into an agreement with the contractor to get the excess pilings of cement. “The contract states that the contractor has the rights to everything on the old bridge,” he said. “The parish is hoping to get some of the timber and reusable materials.”

The materials could be used to remodel several of the pump stations in the parish, he noted.

Lafourche Parish officials have been working to shore up the Larose levee project. Public Works director Ray Cheramie is hopeful the timber and reusable materials from the T-Barr Bridge near Larose and Lockport can be obtained for the levee. * Photo by SOPHIA RUFFIN