By ROBIN SHANNON

L’Observateur

LAPLACE – Contracts for projects to correct flooding problems in Reserve, install an elevated walkway for an Edgard water intake pump, and construct a multi-use path along the Mississippi River Levee in LaPlace were approved by the St. John the Baptist Parish Council at Tuesday’s meeting.

A $1.072 million contract with Civil Construction of Hahnville was approved for the long awaited Homewood Place drainage project. The contractor’s bid was roughly $78,000 short of the $1.15 million estimated budget.

The project involves installing a second drainage pipe and culvert under Airline Highway near Homewood Place, installing two flap gates to protect neighborhoods south of Airline Highway from tidal flooding, moving an existing drainage pump on the Reserve Relief Canal farther north, and adding a second pump next to the existing pump.

The project will be funded through a bond issue approved by voters in 2009 for various public works projects.

For the intake pump walkway project, the council went with the 102,516 low bid from Cecil D. Gassiot LLC of Alexandria. Estimated budget for the project was $180,000.

The walkway to the re-constructed raw water well in Edgard is necessary to allow plant employees to access the well safely during periods of high water in the Mississippi River. In the past, workers were forced to use a boat to get from the levee to the well.

As for the levee trail, the council approved a resolution to allow Parish President Natalie Robottom to execute a $411,000 contract with Barriere Construction Co. to construct a 2.5-mile-long paved path atop the levee starting at the parish line and ending at Walnut Street in LaPlace. The path will eventually connect to an extension of an existing path in St. Charles that connects to trails running toward New Orleans. The path is part of a broader plan to connect to trails further upriver to Baton Rouge.

Robottom said the bid process was conducted by the state Department of Transportation and development, which is sponsoring the project.