LAFAYEETE, La. (KLFY) — The Lafayette Consolidated Government introduced a new drainage project along Johnston Street during a public meeting Tuesday night.

The project aims to alleviate flooding in downtown Lafayette, the University of Louisiana at Lafayette campus and the Freetown area.

The proposed project involves installing a new trunk line under Johnston Street to replace the current drainage pipes, which are about 100 years old.

This initiative is part of an effort to address frequent flooding issues in the area, although it is not expected to prevent severe flooding events like the one experienced in 2016.

“So looking at the downtown area, we’re going to the oldest parts of town,” said Lafayette Mayor-President Monique Boulet. “And yes, that pipe was built for a much different downtown Lafayette than what we have today and what we want in the future.”

Boulet noted that while the project won’t stop flooding like the 2016 event, “this does help us get through most of the typical storms that we’re going to deal with in a year.”

During the meeting, residents expressed their concerns and provided feedback on areas they would like to see addressed by the project.

Boulet emphasized the importance of community input.

“Could it change? Tonight, we were asked about stretching the boundaries a little further north. If that makes sense, yes. We can do that. I think I’ve got to let the engineers look at some of the requests. I think having this kind of opportunity to see can we adapt it to help as much as possible? I think it really comes down to the engineering. I’m hoping we can fix as much as possible in this particular area, but it certainly doesn’t handle all of the issues in the city or the parish. But it does give us the downtown, the Freetown, and a good part of the main campus for the university,” said Boulet.

LCG Chief Administrative Officer Rachel Godeaux mentioned that they hope to secure funding for the project by 2026, with construction potentially starting in 2027.

The drainage project represents a significant step towards mitigating flooding issues in key areas of Lafayette, with the potential to adapt based on community feedback and engineering assessments.

All facts in this report were gathered by journalists employed by KLFY. Artificial intelligence tools were used to reformat from a broadcast script into a news article for our website. This report was edited and fact-checked by KLFY staff before being published.

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