Final Isaac debris pickup next week
Livingston Parish residents need to haul the last of their Hurricane Isaac debris to roadsides this weekend because the final pickup will begin Monday, officials said.
In the just-completed first trip through the parish, the contractor collected 3,104 cubic yards of vegetative debris and 4,743 cubic yards of demolition waste, said Mark Harrell, director of the Livingston Parish Office of Emergency Preparedness.
The parish’s contractor will begin its final pickup on parish roads Monday when a contractor for the state also will begin its second and possibly final pickup in Livingston Parish, state and local officials said Wednesday.
Clay James, project engineer for the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development, said DOTD will assess the need for a third pickup after this one is complete, but he doubts a third round will be necessary.
The state’s contractor hopes to complete the second round by the end of next week, said Lauren Lee, a spokeswoman for DOTD.
The parish contractors will begin operating trucks in both the northern and southern parts of the parish Monday, Harrell said.
“We hope to finish the final pass within a week,” he said. “People need to get their debris out this weekend.”
They should put demolition debris and vegetative debris in separate piles at the edge of parish roads, both state and parish officials said.
Lee said the state contractor expects to finish its first round of pickup on state roads in Tangipahoa Parish on Thursday and begin its second round Friday.
That probably will be the last round of debris pickup there also, James said.
Tangipahoa Parish workers should complete pick-up on parish roads by the end of next week, Parish President Gordon Burgess said.
“I’m ready to shut it down, but I want to be sure we don’t leave something on the roadside,” Burgess said.
The Tangipahoa Parish Department of Public Works, which is handling the parish’s hurricane debris, already has hauled away 1,500 tons of hurricane-related material, he said.
That’s a combination of destruction debris and vegetative waste, most of which has come from the southern part of the parish where heavy flooding occurred, Burgess said.
Denham Springs and Walker have completed pickups within their city limits, the mayors of those cities said.
In Denham Springs, the cleanup along city streets has been completed, the dangerous trees in public rights of way have been cut and the city is waiting for contractors to grind the debris into mulch, Mayor Jimmy Durbin said.
Workers should begin that process next week, he said.
The mulch will be stored and used for landscaping in city parks and on other city property, he said.
In Walker, the cleanup has been completed except for a few homes where residents are finishing cutting fallen trees into manageable sections, Mayor Bobby Font said.
When residents haul that debris to the side of city streets, the city’s Department of Public Works will pick it up, Font said.
The city’s DPW handled the cleanup in Walker.