[StBernard] FOR CRAIG: FEMA millions to repair streets

[Westley Annis]

Slidell gets OK on 97% of works list 

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

St. Tammany bureau

The Federal Emergency Management Agency will spend at least $2.9 million for
nearly 1,000 street-related repair projects in Slidell, with most of the
work occurring in the city's hurricane-battered southern section. 

Mayor Ben Morris announced Friday that the city had received the funding,
though the agency approved the projects two months ago. He said he didn't
want to say anything "until the money's in the bank." 

Noting that FEMA now has formally obligated the money, Morris said the
agency concurred with 97 percent of the works list compiled by the city. And
more Submerged Roads Program money could be forthcoming for the work, the
vast majority of which will be south of Fremaux Avenue. 

Earlier this year, teams of city officials and employees walked the streets
in Slidell and put together an exhaustive list of projects to fix streets,
curbs, sidewalks, driveways and related works. FEMA inspectors later
retraced the city's steps and ultimately agreed that almost all of those
projects qualified for funding. 

The damage was the result of Hurricane Katrina's floodwaters and brutal
winds in August 2005, and by the subsequent swarms of heavy equipment and
truck traffic during the hectic early post-Katrina recovery months. 

"This isn't reimbursement for money the city already has spent," Morris
said. "This is all going to be new work. It's all Katrina-related. We
couldn't go in and do any repairs because it wouldn't be reimbursed without
prior approval from FEMA." 

Morris said the city wants to get started on the work as soon as possible,
though officials already conducted much of the preliminary engineering work
while compiling the detailed 66-page report to FEMA. Richard Lambert will
serve as the program's consulting engineer. 

The agency's initial repair cost estimate for the projects it accepted as
eligible under the program is $2.9 million. However, the final total will be
determined by the "actual cost of repair." That's expected to be much
higher, with FEMA picking up the total tab. 

The list from which FEMA and the city are working breaks down into 983
projects on or along 271 streets, of which 731 projects on or along 183
streets are in the southern half of the city. 

Although the south Slidell projects are 74 percent of the total, they
represent about 92 percent of the potential cost because of the greater
damage caused south of the Fremaux Avenue "slosh line." 

The project worksheet indicates the streets in the subdivisions on either
side of Pontchartrain Drive -- particularly Yester Oaks, Westchester
Estates, Lakeshore Village, Magnolia Heights and Windsor Place -- and the
tidally influenced Palm Lake area suffered the most extensive damage. 



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Craig,

Would SBP be eligible for anything like this as this was, in some parts, due
to the large trucks hauling away debris?

Jim