The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is making progress on a flood protection project on Florida Avenue.
It’s the latest work in the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, known as SELA, which started after Hurricane Katrina.
This part of the project has an end goal of expanding the channel and drainage infrastructure on Florida Avenue.
In order to do that, the corps must first temporarily move railroad tracks, which starts with relocating utility lines.
Just this week, workers began 24/7 construction, hand digging tunnels for those utility lines.
“They’ll use hand tools to dig out that excavated material. They’ll move it outside of that particular casing. They’ll connect in another piece of the casing. They’ll push it in the ground again, and kind of repeat the process. So it’s kind of I put together a puzzle,” Abadie said.
Florida Avenue is just the latest site for this type of construction. Similar work was completed in Uptown in 2020. The corps built culverts big enough to drive a school bus through, allowing water to be stored underground.
Eventually, Florida Avenue will have similar infrastructure.
“Residents are telling us in the Uptown area, which has been completed a few years now, that water is moving off the streets, the sidewalks, in their front yards, a lot quicker thanks to the SELA projects at Napoleon, Louisiana and Jefferson Avenues,” Rene Poche with the corps said.
This phase of construction is expected to be done in 2028, but the corps will have to begin a new contract to finish the full project on Florida Avenue.
The project is primarily funded by the federal government.
READ MORE:24/7 work begins on Florida Avenue flood protection project
