The Calcasieu Parish Police Jury, along with other parish and city officials, celebrated the official ribbon cutting of the Louisiana Avenue Regional Detention Basin Project on Friday.  

It’s been just over two years since the Police Jury broke ground on the detention basin on Oct. 4, 2022. The $5.75 million project was funded with a combination of $1.62 million in capital money and $4.1 million from the federal government’s American Rescue Plan.

Set on 18 acres of property on Louisiana Avenue along Contraband Bayou, the basin is 935-feet wide, 885-feet long and 13-feet deep. It can hold up to 60 million gallons of water – that’s the equivalent of 7-1/2 football fields with one-foot of water covering each.

The detention basin retains excess water from Contraband Bayou. When the bayou reaches a certain high point during heavy rains, the basin will detain that water until the event has passed and the bayou has receded. The basin will then slowly expel water back into Contraband Bayou until it levels back to 3-feet of water – its permanent pool level.

 “This is a great day as we celebrate what is the first regional detention pond in Calcasieu Parish,” said Anthony Bartie, Calcasieu Parish Police Jury President. “Contraband Bayou is an ongoing concern for flooding, so this detention basin project is especially needed in the area. On behalf of the entire Police Jury, I pledge to our residents that we will continue to make drainage and flooding our utmost priority.”

The site is accessible to the public and has landscaping, benches, trash cans, and a half-mile walking path. Ornamental lighting has been added as a safety measure because of repeated requests from neighborhood residents who wanted to utilize the park daily.

Project Engineer is AECOM. Triton Construction built the basin.

Visit calcasieu.gov/laavenue for project updates.