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City launches expanded drainage program: cameraing, cleaning contracts and a vac-truck purchase
Summary
Council authorized contracts for storm-drain cameraing and cleaning, approved a drainage maintenance agreement and introduced budget language to buy a vac truck; the mayor described a coordinated effort using GIS, survey and hydrology work funded by recent state and ARPA allocations.
The City Council on Tuesday authorized a series of actions to accelerate stormwater work after repeated localized flooding: staff won approval to hire contractors to camera and evaluate drainage lines, to contract cleaning crews and to purchase equipment — including a vac truck — as the city bands contractors and in‑house crews to address chronic problem areas.
Mayor and staff described a two-track approach: one contract will perform closed-circuit-television camera inspections and provide GIS-tagged video and survey data for flood-prone areas; a second firm, Louisiana Hydroblast Solutions LLC, will perform line cleaning and maintenance using trailer-mounted vac and hydro-excavation equipment. Both contracts were presented as initial, targeted efforts on neighborhoods that have experienced flooding.
The mayor said the city had secured multiple new drainage funding streams, including capital-outlay and grant funds, and that the camera and cleaning contracts — expected to cost roughly $78,000 and $100,000 respectively for the initial targeted areas — will help prioritize follow-on capital projects. “This is gonna give us eyes, ears, and equipment inside pipes all over town,” the mayor said, describing the value of combined video inspection and cleaning capacity.
Staff said the survey and camera data will feed hydrology modeling to show where main trunks are at capacity and where additional inlets, upsized pipes or detention solutions are required. The mayor also said the city is pursuing state grants and has identified $4.2 million (state capital outlay and other sources referenced during discussion) to support larger drainage projects; he described a $3 million grant the city is preparing to expend on a detention pond project pending final state approvals.
Why it matters: Repeated recent storms have caused new residential flooding in neighborhoods that had not flooded historically; staff said modern camera + GIS inventories and targeted cleaning will help prioritize and sequence capital investments and get immediate relief in critical locations.
What’s next: Contractors will begin work in prioritized neighborhoods, surveyors will capture elevations for hydrology modeling, staff will compile a citywide drainage map and the mayor said the city will continue to seek additional state funding and to use a combination of in-house crews and contractors for recurring maintenance.
