By ROBIN SHANNON

L’Observateur

EDGARD – Money from a more than $3.8 million state grant will help St. John the Baptist Parish pay for shoreline restoration in Lac des Allemands to protect the residents of Pleasure Bend on the west bank of the parish.

Parish President Natalie Robottom announced acceptance of the Coastal Impact Assistance Program grant from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, at a parish council meeting. She said the grant would help the parish continue the ongoing shoreline protection project in Lac des Allemands.

“The project has been discussed for years, and it is now moving forward,” Robottom said. “Pleasure Bend is not only a great fishing community, but it is home to a number of our residents, and we are doing what we can to stop the erosion and help protect homes and property.”

Robottom said the grant will help protect the western shoreline of Lac des Allemands, where extensive erosion has occurred over several decades. She said the project will be completed in two phases. Glenn G. Shaheen and Associates Inc. and sub-consultants Moffatt-Nichol, LaPlace Consultants, PSI and BFM Corp., will provide engineering, design, permitting and construction administration services.

Robottom said phase one is a more than $507,000 project consisting of planning, surveying, geotechnical investigations, engineering design, and permitting of the proposed improvements.

She said phase two is the actual construction of the improvements, which will stretch 11,000 feet from Pleasure Bend westward to Pointe aux Herbes. The improvements consist of near-shore breakwaters or on-shore stabilization that will protect the existing shoreline from further erosion. Final plans for the shoreline protection will be determined during the phase one assessment. Total costs of the improvements are about $3.3 million.

Timmy Aucoin, a resident of Pleasure Bend, expressed his appreciation for the project after the council meeting last Tuesday.

“This is going to be a great project for our community, and we look forward to completion of the project,” he said. “Residents in Pleasure Bend have lost much of their property, and this will definitely stop it from eroding.”

Based on information from the United States Geologic Survey, the shoreline is eroding at an average rate of 17 feet, or approximately 2.9 acres, per year.