Alligator Road to reopen early Monday

Ascension Parish officials planned to reopen Alligator Bayou Road at 5 a.m. Monday after shipping problems delayed the reopening, Ascension Parish President Tommy Martinez said Sunday afternoon.

The work at Frog Bayou Lock/Alligator Bayou Road was originally scheduled to be finished Sunday night, but weather delayed the delivery of equipment being shipped from Florida, he said. The equipment is to be used to install drainage pipes connecting Frog Bayou and Bayou Manchac, Martinez said in a news release.

Crews began working Saturday to build and install two 42-inch drainage pipes under Alligator Bayou Road. Two diesel engines will be used to drive hydraulic pumps in Frog Bayou capable of pumping 50,000 gallons of water per minute from Frog Bayou through the new pipes under Alligator Bayou Road into Bayou Manchac, said Allen Allred, assistant director and operations manager with the East Ascension Gravity Drainage District No. 1.

The pumps are expected to help lower water levels in the Bluff Swamp Basin, officials have said.

Comments

1) Comment by Wetlandsfirst - 04/03/2013

It really is unfortunate how uneducated or uninformed some people are. It’s even more unfortunate that these same people like to speculate about what they think a situation is and gather others support of their ridiculous claims. Let me start by saying that we are just getting through the wettest winter on record for Louisiana. About 25 inches of rain have fallen so far in this area, THIS YEAR already! If the swamp had been held at artificially high levels, as they were in the past by some guy with a very lucrative tour business, there would be an additional 5 feet of water in the swamp right now and homes would be flooded! The Alligator Bayou and Frog Bayou gates now being operated correctly have definitely saved some homes from flooding this year. The reason the new culverts and pumps are being installed at the Frog Bayou gates is because that basin CAN NOT drain if its level is below that of Bayou Manchac. If the gates were open while Manchac were still high, the water would flow the opposite way and flood homes in the Bluff Swamp basin that have been there for a many years. The new pumps will allow water to be moved from the Bluff Swamp basin into Bayou Manchac at any time the water within the basin is too high, regardless of levels within Manchac. This has absolutely NOTHING to do with the interest of any new developer. In fact, it is for the benefit of the habitat within the basin that these excessively high water levels be alleviated as quickly as possible to reduce stress on young tree seedlings that will begin a new growing season as soon as it begins to warm up.

2) Comment by Woody - 03/03/2013

great commentary, stephen. too bad the politicians in ascension parish never care how their decisions affect others. and far be it for the advocate to ask questions.

3) Comment by Stephen - 03/03/2013

The destruction of the Alligator Bayou, which in the view of many was the most beautiful and culturally significant swamp area in the State, was overseen by the politicians in Ascension and a band of greedy developers and a greedy lawyer. They apparently lied to us about how Bluff Swamp would 'naturally' be much lower if everything was left as Mother Nature meant it. Well, now we hear about 42 inch pipes and two diesel engines being set up to pump 50,000 gallons per minute out of the Bluff Swamp Basin. So, are we the taxpayers now paying for the private developers to have their 'naturally' dry land from being under water (where Mother Nature apparently wants it to be)? Do the people buying their lots understand that when the pumps go out they may flood? Why are these private people essentially being given all of this public money? Are they politically connected? So, we all suffered the loss of Alligator Bayou so diesel engines and pumps could be set up by a public entity? Can the Advocate really look into what happened here?