BATON ROUGE – Officials involved in the long-delayed Comite River Diversion Project believe they are on target to meet a completion goal for 2021.

WBRZ will have the late-breaking details in a report on the 5, 6 and 6:30 newscasts Wednesday.

A task force set up to oversee the timelines set to complete the diversion project met Wednesday where the deadline was discussed. Officials said they are pleased in the rate of work lately.

“Crews are securing property, relocating utilities, and planning flood control facilities and highway and railroad bridges to accommodate construction… [and] different agencies involved in the project are working cooperatively toward the goal of completing the canal and related work by 2021,” State Rep. Valarie Hodges’ said in a news release.

The project consists of a 12-mile-long diversion channel from the Comite River to the Mississippi River and will include a diversion structure at the Comite River, guide levees, Lilly Bayou control structure, and drop structures at the intersections of the diversion channel with McHugh Road, Bayou Baton Rouge, Cypress Bayou and White Bayou. Plans also call for low-flow augmentation pumps at the intercepted streams and an earthen closure at Brooks Lake, and clearing and snagging of Bayou Baton Rouge, White Bayou and Cypress Bayou north of the diversion channel that will reduce flooding in those areas.

Natural gas lines are being moved along Hwy. 61 but crews said they are slightly delayed due to weather.

Consultants will soon be hired to handle design-related work for new bridges over Hwy. 19 and Hwy. 67. In the coming weeks, a contractor will be hired to build the Hwy 61/KCS RR bridge. About 50% of the bridge and construction design on Highway 964 has been completed and a consultant was brought in to finalize those plans.

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