By Stephen Hemelt
L’Observateur

PLEASURE BEND — A rock dyke stretching 6,000 feet providing shoreline protection for Pleasure Bend should be complete by Aug. 1.

St. John the Baptist Parish officials and project leaders kicked off the effort, known as the West Lac Des Allemands Shoreline Protection Project, with a ceremonial groundbreaking Wednesday afternoon at the Pleasure Bend Fire Station.

The $3.8 million enterprise follows an award from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement through Louisiana’s Coastal Impact Assistance Program (CIAP). 

David Williams, of CIAP, said Louisiana loses a football field size of land from its coast every 38 minutes, making coastal protection projects a priority.

Williams stressed to St. John leaders the importance of getting future shoreline protection projects defined and attached to upcoming state plans so they can be funded federally like the West Lac Des Allemands effort.

Project engineer Jake Lambert of Gonzalez-based GSA Consulting Engineers said approximately $500,000 was used for preliminary surveying, engineering and permitting work, with approximately $3.3 million set for construction.

“We’re coming along the shoreline and will construct a rock dyke that will block the waves from actually reaching the shoreline,” Lambert said. “We will construct this rock dyke very close to the existing shoreline so we can maximize the linear feet of shoreline that we will protect. 

“As the project is currently proceeding, we are going to construct about 6,000 linear feet of shoreline protection, beginning at the mouth of the Vacherie Canal and proceeding westward to (Pointe Aux Herbes).”

St. John Councilman Marvin Perrilloux said parish leaders want to do anything possible to support Pleasure Bend residents and keep the community growing

“We want to give them protection,” he said. “It’s a good fishing community that contributes a lot to the parish.”

Perrilloux said these projects help St. John Parish by keeping federal dollars flowing locally.

“(Hurricane Isaac) showed us what our weaknesses are, and we need to start protecting our parish and protecting our interests,” he said.

Pleasure Bend resident Rodney Viallon sees the value of the project for the area’s wetlands but said he is worried about the neighborhood.

“The water will come around (the rock dyke) through the canals, and what’s going to stop that?” he said. “We get water about once every two or three years on the land. If it doesn’t drain off into the swamp, they are telling me it is supposed to drain through the rocks. I don’t know. If it doesn’t drain off in the swamp, it will make it worse.”

The construction contract was awarded to Bertucci Construction with a start date of May 27 and a construction schedule, weather permitting, of 60 days.

Lambert said many local residents are supportive of the effort even though construction will impact an area of the lake where there is a lot of commercial and recreational fisherman and boaters. 

“The commercial fisherman are running crab traps and catfish lines right now, but they have been supportive because they know it’s going to protect their community,” he said. 

Parish President Natalie Robottom said everyone involved is anxious to begin because this has been a project years in the making.

“This has been going on for some time now,” she said. “We’re ready to get started.”