Wednesday Jan 5th Cecilia LA
Bayou Courtableau – Bayou Amy Drainage Gate
A number of DTV Board Members attended LA DOTD Meeting in Cecilia LA regarding a proposed New Flood Gate between Bayou Courtableau and Bayou Amy that would facilitate both a flood mitigation asset as well as provide freshwater supplementation to downstream tributaries including Lakes Catahoula, Dautrive, and Fausse Pointe.
This project was identified by DTV. DTV drafted a conceptual design which was accepted by both St. Landry Parish, LWI at the Round 1 Pre-App stage, and the LA DOTD where a funding grant was made for modeling and design. The fiscal and administrative agent for the project is the RRABB Levee Board in Alexandria, LA.
The meeting was well attended and included several parish leaders including parish presidents from St. Martin and Iberia as well as other parish, state, and federal officials.
There was quite a bit of discussion as well as a number of questions asked. An agreement was reached for the engineering firm to meet one-on-one with each stakeholder organization to review their project design and modeling when completed. Additionally, when the gate is constructed operational criteria will have to be developed to assign operational responsibility as well as developing procedures that ensures that no harm will be done to downstream interests.
Location of Proposed Gate
USACE Bayou Cocodrie and Tributaries Project
This project was initiated in June 1946 and stood 57% complete as reported by the USACE in it’s 2007 report to the Mississippi River Commission. This project originally addressed drainage path tributaries in the northern and central part of the Teche-Vermilion watershed. US Rep Clay Higgins and the USACE announced a study to re-look at this area. This study will be 100% funded by the federal government.
Hopefully this study will identify drainage problems in the tributaries as well as address the obvious blockage of the drainage in the West Atchafalaya Floodway. The USACE is estimating 2-3 years to complete this study. The need for this study was identified from data DTV provided to the USACE last year.
Enterprise – Dixie Pipeline Spoil Bank Regapping Project in the West Atchafalaya Floodway – Update
This project was developed by DTV with assistance from St Martin and St Landry Parish officials and submitted to the Louisiana Coastal Restoration Authority(CPRA) for consideration and funding. The project was accepted and funded in 2021. As of January 2022 the design work was reported by CPRA as 95% complete with construction expected later in 2022 pending water levels in the floodway. Successful execution of this project will remove a major known obstruction in the drainage path in the West Atchafalaya Floodway from the Bayou Courtableau Floodgates to Henderson Lake.
Location of Enterprise – Dixie Pipeline in the West Atchafalaya Floodway