Authorized by Public Law 89-298, approved 27 October 1965, House Document No. 167, 89th Congress.

The Morgan City and Vicinity, Louisiana, Project consists of two independent features which are to provide protection against a standard project hurricane having a frequency of once in several hundred years for two separate South Louisiana areas: the Morgan City area and the Franklin area.

The Morgan City area feature consists of construction of about six miles of levees along the shore of Lake Palourde, along the west bank of Bayou Ramos, and along Bayou Boeuf, and four gravity drainage structures. Our present conceptual plan more closely follows the more recently built levee alignments. The major change is the inclusion of existing confining levees along the Lake Palourde outfall canals and the inclusion of the existing levee alignment east of the Lakeside subdivision. The Lakeside levees will have a net grade of about 7 to 9 feet with the Begments close to the Lake having the higher elevation because of wave conditions. These elevations are to provide sufficient protection against the tilting lake surface and waves induced by hurricane winds on a critical path across Lake Palourde. The 1/2 mile of new levee near Bayou Boeuf will have a net grade of about 12 feet. The Southern Pacific Railroad embankment will tie the two levees together on the southeast end of the system. Atchafalaya River and basin levees tie the western end of the loop together and provide protection against river flood stages in excess of hurricane flood stages.

The Franklin area feature consists of enlargement of about 21.6 miles of back levee and construction of approximately 3.1 miles of new levees to enclose the area, construction of a floodgate and five gravity drainage structures; and alteration of existing drainage facilities where necessary.

Progress of Work

General Design Memorandum for the Franklin area and the final EIS were completed in 1973. Further preconstruction planning work in Franklin and Morgan City was stopped in November 1973 because of local interests inability to finance their portion of project costs.

In July 1980, supplementary assurances allowed the Morgan City area general designs to recommence. By letter dated April 15, 1985 the Corps furnished the St. Mary Parish Council descriptions of alternative plans for the Morgan City area. On June 27, 1985 a meeting was held in Morgan City with representatives from St. Mary Parish Council, Morgan City and Corps of Engineers at which time the alternative alignments were presented in further detail. The Council was requested to inform the Corps of the alignment they would support. By letter dated September 16, 1985 the Corps requested the St. Mary Parish Council to select an alignment and provide a firm commitment of their financial support of that alignment.

Cost

Due to the local sponsor's inability to finance their portion of the project cost, the project has been moved to the deferred category.

State and local officials have been notified that the Congressional, Franklin Area separable element was eligible for deauthorization and reported to the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate on October 31, 1994 by the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works. The Franklin Area will automatically be deauthorized on May 1, 1997, thirty months from the date of the report, unless Federal funds are obligated for construction, or Congressional action is taken to extend authorization by that time.