Council discusses Spillway Road repair, master sewerage plan

The St. Charles Parish Council unanimously approved to move forward with Spillway Road repair in its meeting last month.

Council members approved an ordinance to authorize the execution of a contract with Omega Foundation Services Inc., for Parish Project No. P190902 – which is the Spillway Road Rehabilitation project.

The bid amount was $1,157,156.

Miles Bingham, director of public works for St. Charles Parish, said the parish moved on the project as quickly as it could, and acknowledged that the road is a vital link between Montz and Norco. He said the project would be complete three to four months after work begins, and that by mid-March a notice to proceed should be issued to Omega.

“The road will get fixed,” Bingham said.

Bingham pointed to the fact that the Spillway has historically not been open this often – and for such long stretches when it is open – as initial hurdles to the completion of the project. He did say, however, that the parish’s engineers worked extremely hard to determine what past repairs were effective, and which ones were not, and are moving forward with more permanent solutions.

The road repairs will include rock revetment work at crossings, and Bingham counts it a strong possibility that the road could be compete for the fall of 2021.

At the same council meeting, Assistant Director of Wastewater David DeGeneres gave the council an update on the current development of a Master Sewerage Plan for the parish.

The goal of the plan, he said, is to identify improvements that would reduce infiltration and inflow into the existing system and to meet the long-term demands of growth and development.

The parish divided the sewerage system into three areas of study based upon geographic location and treatment facility serving the area. DeGeneres said three engineering firms were selected to conduct the study.

Meyers Engineers Ltd. was selected to cover the area that discharges to the Hahnville treatment plant, Linfield, Hunter, & Junius, Inc. was selected to cover the area that discharges to the Luling Oxidation Pond and Kyle Associates, LLC was selected to cover the area that discharges to the Destrehan treatment plant.

The parish broke the study into three phases. The first was data collection and a preliminary evaluation of the sewerage system in the study area in order to identify problem areas.

Phase 2 consisted of flow monitoring, smoke testing and video inspection, while Phase 3 is project development.

DeGeneres said Phase 1 was completed at the first of the year, and work on Phase 2 is happening currently and should be complete in the fall of the this year.

The parish has never had this comprehensive of a sewerage study, DeGeneres said, adding the plan is important to have in place to make sure the system can handle any and all future commercial and residential development in the parish.

When Phase 2 wraps up, DeGeneres said engineers will develop projects and tackle the projects that have the most impact. One such project on the forefront of his priority list is to purchase generators for all of the parish’s main lift stations.

 

About Monique Roth 919 Articles
Roth has both her undergraduate and graduate degree in journalism, which she has utilized in the past as an instructor at Southeastern Louisiana University and a reporter at various newspapers and online publications. She grew up in LaPlace, where she currently resides with her husband and three daughters.

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