Workers reopened Alligator Bayou Road Monday after the highway connecting Ascension and Iberville parishes was closed for a over a year. 

The road opened back up to traffic around 9 a.m. Monday.

Ascension Parish President Clint Cointment said the new Fish Bayou flood control structure, the cause of the lengthy closure, is nearly complete. The $3.5 million structure, built at the point where Bayhou Manchac meets Fish Bayou, is expected to reduce flood duration in the Bluff Swamp/Spanish Lake Basin area.

“Working together with our neighbors in Iberville parish, we have improved this area for our
residents. Where once, they have worried about flood waters overtaking the levee, we now
have a new mechanism in place to abate the waters," President Cointment said in a statement. 

The road has been closed since May 2021, when workers cut into the roadway to allow water to drain into Bayou Manchac.