• Client

  City of Carencro

• Division

  Engineering

• Scope

  Drainage and Utilities Design, Facility Design

• Completion

  2020

In March of 2012, the City of Carencro, Louisiana, was inundated by more than 14” of rainfall in less than 24 hours, amounting to a nearly 500-year storm event. Large areas of the City flooded, resulting in emergency rescues and widespread property damage. Much of the City’s wastewater, stormwater, and roadway infrastructure was severely damaged or destroyed.   

On a mission to rebuild the City, community leaders called on Fenstermaker to survey and map high–water marks throughout the community and quantify the damage to the City’s infrastructure. Fenstermaker led a nearly 4-year collaboration with FEMA and GOHSEP to identify improvement projects that would repair and protect the City’s infrastructure should another critical storm event occur. Fenstermaker secured federal funding from FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP) for multiple projects, including the Andre Street Drainage and Utility Project.

The Andre Street Drainage and Utility project, a vital component of meeting the drainage and wastewater needs of one of Acadiana’s fastest–growing communities, included the concrete lining of the City’s largest waterway, the Beau Bassin Coulee, which runs through the heart of downtown Carencro. This required the installation of over 1,200 feet of articulated block mat, serving several goals: protecting property owners, correcting and preventing erosion by providing continuous channel stabilization, and reducing the risk of failure of the coulee’s high bank. 

Additionally, the project involved the conversion of Church Street’s storm-damaged lift station into what would become Carencro’s largest lift station. Constructed to transport 75% of the City’s daily wastewater flow as part of a three-phase sewer improvement plan, the lift station upgrade is an essential first step in routing wastewater from the Manola Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) to the new Post Road WWTP. Currently in its design phase, this new plant will serve Carencro’s projected population growth and protect the wastewater system infrastructure from future storms.  

The new ‘mega’ lift station, capable of servicing 18,000 residents, is capable of pumping 2 million gallons per day (2.0 MGD) as construction included an upgrade of the sewer force main from 12” to 20” pipe. The station is situated strategically, elevated above the 500-year Base Flood Elevation, designed to withstand a 500-year flood event. The total construction cost on this project was 3.8 million dollars funded by FEMA through the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness (GOHSEP). 

---