By ROBIN SHANNON

L’Observateur

DESTREHAN – Public works crews in St. Charles Parish began work Wednesday to remove an overgrowth of vegetation in the Borrow Pit Canal along Airline Highway in Destrehan and St. Rose.

Renee Simpson, public information officer for St. Charles, said the eight- to 10-week cleaning project would increase the drainage capacity of the roughly five-mile long canal in an effort to provide quicker drainage to neighborhoods in Destrehan and St. Rose.

“Parts of the canal are completely blocked by water lilies and other vegetation,” Simpson said. The growth has considerably decreased the amount of water that can be stored or flowed through the canal.”

Simpson said the drainage system on the east bank of St. Charles is set up to allow water to move from subdivisions south of Airline into the canal and finally into a final outfall through the East Bank hurricane protection levee’s drainage structures, which drain into the LaBranche Wetlands.

The work involves use of a rented marsh buggy with excavator and a mud boat with public works employee monitors. Vegetation is scooped out of the canal and placed on the bank to be removed from the area.

In areas where space provides, Simpson said the parish would operate two excavators at a time to expedite the project.

She said the work is not routine and required a special permit from the Army Corps of Engineers because the work area is protected wetlands.

Simpson said the parish will begin work near the Interstate 310 interchange and proceed toward the Cross Bayou drainage structure, located about a half mile east of the Ormond Boulevard intersection of Airline Highway.

She said the area is receiving special attention in the wake of record amounts of rainfall in December that flooded streets and homes in the area with more than seven inches of rain in a 24-hour period.