On Sunday 17th September, Governor John Bel Edwards and Department Of Transportation Developement Secretary Shawn Wilson are in Washington D.C. to meet with the US Army Corps of Engineers to discuss the long-delayed Comite River Diversion Canal, a flood control project for the Baton Rouge area. Wilson says the state has committed a significant amount of resources for this project, and it’s time for the Corps to do their part.
Wilson says the project, intended to be funded by the Corps, was approved in 1992, and has been tied up over the years in federal bureaucracy. He says they know that the floods of 2016 would have been lessened to a certain extent by this project, and Louisiana is ready to move the ball.
Wilson says the project would be a channel that diverts water out of the Comite, and takes it directly to the Mississippi River and away from more populated areas. He says the dollars that the state has ready to spend will help move the project forward, but the feds need to commit to getting it done.