LAPLACE – The St. John the Baptist Parish Council recently awarded a roughly $1.5 million contract for drainage improvements in the St. Joan of Arc and Persimmon Street area in LaPlace to Command Construction of Metairie.

The contract, awarded at a Jan. 25 parish council meeting, is about $600,000 less than the original $1.6 million estimated budget for the work. The project is one of several drainage improvements tied to the $29.5 million bond issue approved by St. John voters in 2009.

Paige Braud, a spokesperson for the parish, said the project consists of adding new culverts along Fir Street, West Fifth Street and Spruce Street, cleaning the canal along the railroad track between Fir Street and Maple Loop and installing a new drainage pump station between Captain G. Bourgeois and Persimmon streets.

Braud said the improvements will allow drainage water to be pumped into the Mississippi River rather than be pushed north of Airline Highway out to Lake Pontchartrain.

Construction is set to begin on March 1, with a completion time of 120 days, Braud said.

“This project will improve drainage in areas that historically have been problematic,” said Parish President Natalie Robottom in a release. “Several attempts were made to relieve the problem, but this solution is more comprehensive.”

Councilman Haston Lewis, who represents the area where the improvements are taking place, said several attempts at solving the drainage issues in the St. Joan of Arc/Persimmon Street basin have been unsuccessful in the past. He expects that this project will correct those longstanding flooding problems.