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Work to repair 1,100 sinkholes in EBR Parish set to begin in January

2 years 3 months 5 days ago Tuesday, December 21 2021 Dec 21, 2021 December 21, 2021 4:55 PM December 21, 2021 in News
Source: WBRZ

BATON ROUGE - The new year will bring sinkhole solutions - an East Baton Rouge government effort to fill a growing list of sinkholes.

Work will start in January to fill more than 1,100 of them. 

Work will be funded from $20 million in American Rescue Plan money.

Some work already started: Ongoing projects are clearing sediment from drainage canals and systems which started in June.

The more than one-thousand sinkholes are next. 

Sinkholes have been a focus of a series of 2 On Your Side reports since this summer. 

This week, some were seen by residents of Bonn Drive in Baton Rouge.  The neighborhood has three sinkholes on one street. 

Lola Leblanc said Tuesday, a sinkhole first appeared in her yard in October of 2020. She called 311 to report it immediately, but when she checked on it some time after, she was told it was filled.  The sinkhole is still there, though.

“We called to check on it with 311 and they told us it had been completed so we told them it wasn’t so they said you just have to put in another order for repairs so we did that and we’re on the waiting list again," said Leblanc.

Finally, it could be filled in. 

Two of her neighbors have sink holes in their yards, too.  One appeared just last week. 

“I would like to see it fixed fairly quickly because ... we have a lot of walkers in the neighborhood and I’ll be happy so nobody can fall in and break a leg," said Leblanc. 

The work performed by the city-parish will also clear drainage ditches and canals, with another $20 million recently passed for a second phase of work. 

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