BATON ROUGE — State lawmakers were told Wednesday that all remaining contracts for the long-delayed Comite River Diversion Project have now been awarded. But frustration continues as officials confirmed the flood-control effort is not expected to be completed until 2028.
The update came during a joint briefing from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Department of Transportation and Development, and FEMA.
The Comite River Diversion Project is designed to divert excess water from the Comite River into the Mississippi River during heavy rain events, reducing flood risk for as many as 700,000 residents across the region.
The timeline and project update comes nearly a decade after the historic 2016 flood that devastated the Capital Region. Sen. Valarie Hodges said the 2016 flood caused an estimated $9 billion in damage statewide.
“It was really the major project that we had to mitigate flooding,” Hodges said. “There’s nothing else to mitigate flooding. Baton Rouge is the capital of Louisiana. 22% of our population lives here. It has to get done.
“When we hear it rains, terrified voices that call us. This is a billion dollar project, and I have given my word to my constituents that we’re going to finish this project.”
Timeline update: 2028 completion
Col. Scotty Autin, commander of the New Orleans District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers since July 2025, told lawmakers that all remaining contracts tied to the project have now been awarded.
“The last time Colonel Jones briefed you there were some remaining contracts that needed to be awarded that were still out there,” Autin said. “I just want to highlight, I think as we talk about the wins as this project moves along, we have awarded all the contracts on this project.”
Autin presented an updated construction schedule showing the diversion structure is expected to take 870 days to complete, with completion projected in the second quarter of 2028. The longest component of the project, Bayou Baton Rouge, carries an estimated construction timeline of 1,087 days.
“We all want it to go faster, right?” Autin said. “What I don’t want this to do is just key in on a 2028 date, and get fixated on that. This is the agreed upon schedule, but we’re committed to delivering this as efficiently and as quickly as possible.”
Lawmakers question urgency: ‘This is life and death’
Hodges sharply questioned whether contractors are moving quickly enough, saying she has personally visited project sites and seen little visible activity.
“There’s nobody out there working,” she said. “I can’t even express the frustration that we all feel, but how do we make them go out there and do the work? I know contractors have multiple jobs, and I know how that works, but this is literally a matter of life and death. We’re talking about a $9 billion flood that we had. To me, this should be a priority.”
The Army Corps said individual contractors are responsible for meeting the timelines laid out in their agreements.
Hodges also questioned the length of time projected for work on Bayou Baton Rouge. “I’m looking at this 1,087-day construction on Bayou Baton Rouge,” she said. “That’s two years to build one diverter structure. Is it going to really take that long?”
Autin said the scope and complexity of the project justify the schedule.
“When you’re looking at the level of earthwork, grading, movement, the complexity of the design structures that we’re doing, it does match,” he said. “It matches what we would see on similar complex projects.”
What the project includes
The Army Corps also showed a video explaining the scope of the Comite River Diversion Project, describing it as a 12-mile diversion channel connecting the Comite River to the Mississippi River, just north of Baker and south of Zachary.
The project includes control structures at the Comite River and Lily Bayou, rock chute controls connecting White Cypress Bayou and Bayou Baton Rouge, and significant infrastructure work, including two railroad bridges, four highway bridges, and a parish road bridge.
“This extraordinary project is more than just earth and water,” the video narration included. “It features major engineering achievements.”
FEMA officials told UWK in 2025 that once the project is completed, they can begin revising flood maps. Those revisions, according to Paul Sawyer, Executive Director of the Amite Basin Commission, could result in big savings for homeowners who live within that flood basin.
Some of those savings could come in the summer of 2027 when the project is 50% completed. That threshold, Sawyer said, is going to allow eliminated or reduced flood insurance premiums.
Originally, the project was the product of two catastrophic floods that happened in the basin in 1977 and 1983, which spurred Congress to explore funding flood mitigation measures in the area. The project has been ongoing since August of 1991 and is estimated to cost $1 billion by completion.
You can watch the full update here.
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