Major Progress on Catch Basin
Cleaning and Repairs across the City
Since January 2017, 23,337 catch
basins have been cleaned across the city of New Orleans. Following the major
flooding in August of last year, the Department of Public Works prioritized
catch basin cleaning by reassigning its in-house crews to that effort, by
urging the Louisiana Department of Transportation & Development (LaDOTD) to
clean catch basins on state thoroughfares, and by spending $22M on the emergency
catch basin cleaning and repair programs.
The City’s
contractor, Compliance Envirosystems (CES), began the $7M emergency catch basin cleaning program on September 26,, 2017
and finished on January 23, 2018. The
goal for the program was to clean 15,000
catch basins in 120 days. There were 16-22 VAC trucks working six days a week
across all neighborhoods in New Orleans to complete this work. Crews removed more
than 7.2 million pounds of debris from
catch basins, 93,000 pounds of which
were Mardi Gras beads. The Department set a goal of hiring 61 percent local
workers initially and exceeded that goal by hiring 59 percent local workers for
the program.
On October 9, 2017, 17 crews began the
emergency catch basin repair program. Currently, 25 catch basin repair crews
are assigned to neighborhoods across the city (Bayou St. John, Bywater, City
Park, Dillard, Fairgrounds, Filmore, Florida Area, French Quarter, Lake
Terrace, Lakeview, Mid-City, Navarre and St. Claude) five days a week. Since
the beginning of the eight-month repair program, 2,156 catch basins have been
repaired.
Additionally, crews are addressing drain
point repairs across the city through Hurricane Isaac and other funding sources.
There were more than 460 cases of flooding issues reported to 311, of which 109
were determined to be in need of drain point repairs. Work has already begun on the 109 repairs
that are part of this contract.
Maintaining
full transparency continues to be priority for this program. To that end, the
City’s catch basin reporting portal allows for live monitoring of catch
basin assessments, cleaning and repairs. While the City continues to unclog and
repair drains, it is equally important for residents to keep catch basins clear
of trash and debris to prevent further issues. To help improve drainage
conditions in your neighborhood, check out our Adopt
A Catch Basin
website.
|