[StBernard] Violet Canal to be closed for Bayou Dupre sector gate maintenance

[Westley Annis]

Violet Canal to be closed for Bayou Dupre sector gate maintenance
Print Jed Lipinski, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune By Jed Lipinski, NOLA.com

| The Times-Picayune 

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on February 10, 2014 at 11:03 AM, updated February 10, 2014 at 5:05 PM

The Violet Canal, the waterway that connects St. Bernard Parish with the
Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet, will be closed to all navigation for
approximately 75 days beginning Feb. 17, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
has announced. 

The closure is required so that the Corps of Engineers, along with the New
Orleans Levee District and the Lake Borgne Levee District, can conduct
maintenance and repairs on the canal's Bayou Dupre sector gate, also known
as the Violet Lock.  

"The gate was replaced after Hurricane Katrina as part of the Hurricane and
Storm Damage Risk Reduction System," Chris Gilmore, the corps' senior
project manager, said, adding that the gate protects against storm surge.
The new gate reaches an elevation of 32 feet, Gilmore said, compared to the
old gate's height of 15.5 feet.   

Unlike repairs to the broken Industrial Canal lock in January, which caused
extensive commercial shipment delays, the repairs to the Dupre Sector gate
are part of a maintenance project that began before hurricane season last
year. Now that hurricane season has passed, Gilmore said, the project is
resuming.

As opposed to the elaborate two-week detour necessitated by the recent
closure of the Industrial Canal, recreational fishing vessels that normally
ply the Violet Canal can find an easy alternate route through the Bayou
Bienvenou control structure, officials said.    

"This closure will not have an economic impact, but it is an inconvenience,"
Gilmore said. "We want to give fisherman and others a heads up to make
alternate plans."