How can Jefferson Parish hide its ugly drainage canals? There’s a new idea in the works.

By Blake Paterson

Source: The Times-Picayune | Nola.com

April 29, 2024

After years of handwringing over how to spruce up its unsightly and often unsafe drainage canals, Jefferson Parish is testing out a new strategy: camouflaging them with trees.

The parish has identified 18 locations on its east bank where there’s enough space between the street and canal ditch to plant trees, and in the coming weeks, it plans to pilot the idea along a small stretch of roadway.

Jefferson Parish President Cynthia Lee Sheng said the idea of adding a layer of foliage along the open canals came to her while pulling out of the Trader Joe’s parking lot on Veterans Memorial Boulevard.

“The trees were in full bloom, and you couldn’t even see there was a canal behind them,” Lee Sheng said at a Bureau of Governmental Research forum last week. “I’m like, ‘This is how we need to do this’.”

The parish has long-discussed — though rarely followed through on — efforts to address its 340 miles of open drainage canals, which are not only an eyesore but also a safety hazard.

After a series of fatal car crashes in 2015, the parish explored the idea of adding guardrails between the roads and canals. However, the effort was deemed too expensive for taxpayers’ taste.

Even costlier was the idea of enclosing the canals. Some proponents, including real estate developer Henry Shane, argued the parish could recoup its expenses by leasing out the newly built land. But the idea never took off.

Not only are trees cheaper and more visually appealing than guardrails, Lee Sheng said, but they’ll also help reduce erosion, restore wildlife habitats, improve water quality and clean the air by absorbing carbon dioxide.

In addition to beautifying the roadway, the trees will also serve as a “visual barrier,” helping to prevent people from accidentally driving into the canals, Lee Sheng said.

On top of planting trees, the parish is also hoping to replace the sometimes jagged and haphazardly placed pipes feeding into its canals with uniform, concrete-paved outfalls, which also help harden and stabilize canal banks.

The parish is planning to pilot the new approach on Veterans Memorial Boulevard between Harvard Avenue and Clearview Parkway. A preliminary site plan recommends planting 71 trees of varying size along either side of the canal, at a cost of between $400 to $500 per tree.

Starting in the next few weeks, the parish will begin installing the new drainage outfalls along the canal at a cost of $303,000, parish officials said. That work should take two to three months to complete. After it’s done, the trees will be planted.

The parish is limited in where it can deploy the “tree screening” approach, Lee Sheng said. There needs to be at least 25 feet of flat land between the top of the canal and the edge of the roadway so maintenance equipment can access the canal and the tree canopy won’t interfere with traffic.

Unlike previous ideas, the parish won’t need to ask taxpayers to chip in extra funds to support the effort. Even better, Lee Sheng said her staff presented the idea to Shane and “he’s ready to throw money at it.” Shane didn’t respond to a request for comment.

“Sometimes the simplest things are right there for you,” Lee Sheng said.

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