Debris such as a freezer, butane tank and logs have been building up near the bridge located south of Crowley in Vermilion Parish.
Logs, branches and more have been blocked by the pilings on the wooden bridge crossing Bayou Queue de Tortue. Petry Bridge Road ends at the bridge and becomes G. Simon Road as it enters Vermilion Parish. Two of three dead alligators (upper right of photo) can be seen from the side of the bridge.
Bayou Blockage
Debris - including logs, branches, discarded appliances, and even a few alligator carcasses - has been collecting along the northeast side of a bridge over Bayou Queue de Tortue, and area residents are concerned.
The bridge in question connects Acadia and Vermilion parishes and is on Petry Bridge Road on the Acadia side and G. Simon Road on the Vermilion side. The bridge is on the northwest end of Vermilion Parish.
Gordon Ray Morgan, the Acadia Parish police juror representing that area, said he’s “been going round and round” with the Vermilion Parish juror about cleaning it up, all to no avail.
Kay Faulk, who lives near the bridge in Vermilion Parish, said she has also been calling her police juror about the problem.
“We’ve been calling for a few weeks now, and nothing’s been done,” she said.
And with the rotting alligator carcasses added to the mix, “it’s starting to get pretty ripe out there,” she added.
“We’ve established through the police juries that the bridge belongs to Vermilion Parish,” Morgan said. “I went so far as to let an amphibious excavator use my property to get in there and clean it out once before, but it’s really piling up now. I feel like sanctions need to be put on someone.”
Morgan said he’s afraid that, should heavy rainfall occur, the bridge, which was replaced in 2014, might be severely damaged.
“The best thing they could do would be to build a new bridge, but we all know how that goes,” Morgan added. “I think they need to get it done right or go in there and just tear it out.”
Chad Vallo is the Vermilion Parish Police Juror in the Gueydan area.
Vallo said the debris issue with the bridge is nothing new. It has been going on for years, long before Vallo was a Vermilion Parish police juror.
Vallo said the problem is that the bridge is wooden and the pilings are close together, which prevents large debris from passing under the bridge. It gets stuck, and debris flows west, piling up at the bridge. The canal begins around Carencro and then flows to Lake Arthur.
Replacing the bridge with a concrete bridge would cost the Vermilion Parish Police Jury $750,000.
The police jury replaced the bridge 10 years ago.
Vallo said the Vermilion Parish Police Jury cleaned around the bridge 10 weeks ago.
They hired a contractor who removed debris and old pilings that were blocking the floating debris. It cost the jury around $6,000.
“The Police Jury does not have the funds to clean it once a month,” said Vallo.
He did say the police jury is considering installing floating bumper barriers on both sides of the bridge. There are bumpers on the Vermilion River at the two bridges in Abbeville.
Vallo contacted the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries to see if it could remove the dead, smelly alligators. He was told only if the Wildlife and Fisheries were investigating a crime involving the alligators.
Eddie Faulk, the husband of Kay Faulk, said something needs to be done in order to stop the debris from piling up. Smelling three dead alligators, which are unable to move because of the debris pileup, is not a good smell, Eddie Faulk said.
“They are so bloated and about to bust,” said Eddie, who is 83.
The bridge connects the two parishes, but it is used by only a handful of vehicles.
“There has been talk about taking the bridge out,” said Eddie. “Those who pass on it, use it for convenience to go from Acadia to Vermilion. If they remove the bridge, it would be an inconvenience of about a mile for those who use the bridge.
“Something needs to be done.”
