PLEASURE BEND — Community members in Pleasure Bend have seen their shoreline erode for years, and parish leaders are hoping a ceremonial groundbreaking held this afternoon signals St. John the Baptist Parish’s answer to that land loss.

Parish President Natalie Robottom led a group of speakers at 1:30 p.m. today at the Pleasure Bend Fire Station, each speaking about the West Lac Des Allemands Shoreline Protection Project.

The plan calls for the construction of a rock dyke that will block the waves from actually reaching the shoreline.

The rock dyke will be built very close to the existing shoreline to maximize the linear feet of shoreline designated for protection.

As the project proceeds, crews will construct about 6,000 linear feet of shoreline protection, beginning at the mouth of the Vacherie Canal and proceeding westward.

The contract has been signed with contractor Bertucci Construction, and the contract notice to proceed was on May 27. The construction activities, weather permitting, are expected to last about 60 days.

“The residents seem to be very, very supportive of this,” said project engineer Jake Lambert of Gonzalez-based GSA Consulting Engineers. “We’re going to be kind of impacting a certain area of the lake where there is a lot of commercial fisherman out there, a lot of recreational fisherman boaters.

“The commercial fisherman are running crap traps and catfish lines right now, but they have been supportive because they know it’s going to protect their community. We have tried to communicate with them, and everybody seems to be real supportive thus far.”