St. Tammany News

The Ides of March are fast approaching when torrential downpours can become frequent visitors to Louisianans. Residents living on Woodside and Oakwood drives in Mandeville hope to be spared from street flooding this year with the new subsurface drainage installed by the city.

Crews began filling in ditches and inserting underground drainage pipes along Woodside and Oakwood drives in November to solve the flooding problem the streets often experienced during heavy rains, inspector for Meyer Engineers Charles Nickel said.

Backhoe Operator Wayne Jones prepares Woodside Drive for asphalting, the final stage of a drainage project conducted to eradicate flooding problems on the street. (Staff Photo by Chad Ruiz)

Today, construction is nearly complete with the drainage system in place and Woodside Drive left to be asphalted. Nickel hopes the project will be complete in several weeks and is confident the flooding issues have been resolved.

"Overlaying the street with asphalt will finalize that job," he said. "I'm sure it's solved the drainage problem of getting the water out of that area."

David Richie III and Troy Babin, 162 Oakwood Drive, beg the differ.

The longtime residents said when the ditches were in place, the streets would still flood but the water flowed forcefully out of the neighborhood. They also said the ditches held more water and now with the culverts, the land has been raised on the edge of their front yard, preventing the water from draining.

"Our yard holds the water now," Babin said. "It drained good before with the ditches, but now the entire front yard floods and looks like a swimming pool."

On top of that, he said, it takes days for the water to finally subside, leaving a saturated mess of mud in its wake.

Department of Public Works Director for Mandeville David deGeneres said the project is only 80 percent complete, and once done, the drainage system should synchronize and flow better.

"I think right now in the middle of construction you will see problems," he said. "But once you grade and re-sod, it should work itself out."

It has been an unusually wet winter, he said, which only contributes to the problem.

"If you go anywhere in Mandeville right now and walk through anyone's yard, it's going to be wet," he said.

He also said the street will drain slower without the ditches because now the water is having to find its way into catch basins instead of one long ditch.

"Before the drains the water just couldn't get out, but now it has some place to go, which will alleviate some of the problems," deGeneres said.

Richie did admit the installment of the subsurface drains does improve the trash problem he witnessed with the ditches.