But had not understood that extending the canal to the Comite meant a new lengthy bridge would have to be built for Plank Road across what today is solid ground. “Every time I pass there and see what they’re doing, I’m wondering, `Are they going under this road? What’s going to happen to Plank Road?”’ she said. But Maguire said she knew all that work would eventually come, if the canal was going to reach the Comite River east from her home. Right now, only mounds of fresh dirt and the tops of cranes and construction equipment are visible from Plank Road. They’ve heard the dirt equipment in the distance from the woods behind their house, and they’ve seen the trucks passing in front of their home. Patrice Maguire, 53, lives just north of the McHugh Road bridge construction zone with her husband, Chris, 55. 61 and the Kansas City Southern Railroad. They include the one contractors are building near McHugh Road and more to the west, at U.S. The landscape will change so much that seven new bridges will be required. That includes roads, railroads, pipelines, wetlands and private properties, according to Corps of Engineers plans. To accomplish that goal, this straight, rock-lined waterway will need everything in its 12-mile path to either get out of its way, go over its banks, or slide underneath its bottom. It will be able to funnel the equivalent of the Arkansas River, reducing flooding in the middle Amite basin, according to Corps of Engineers’ estimates. The new waterway is being carved from what was once solid earth. The excess water will be turned west away from the Amite River, where it normally flows, and go down the new canal to the Mississippi River north of Baton Rouge.
Those higher water levels, experts say, often contribute to flooding downstream, where hundreds of thousands of people live. When the canal opens - in 2024 or 2025, officials hope - a diversion structure will continuously redirect the Comite River once it rises above a certain height. Some of those areas, including Segment 3, have hit problems because of delays in the negotiation of interstate gas pipelines owned by Florida Gas.Ĭritics of the flood-fighting project’s 40-year-long slog towards construction have derisively called it a “boondoggle” and just a “drainage ditch.” But contractors working for the Corps of Engineers are clearly building something much bigger than a ditch.
Bato rouge flooding series#
The U.S Army Corps of Engineers and the state Department of Transportation and Development have broken up construction of the Comite River Diversion Canal into a series of phases, or segments, that can be built somewhat independently of one another in case one area runs into delays. After decades of delays, political wrangling, and cobbling together around $580 million, the long-awaited Comite River Diversion Canal is finally becoming a reality.
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