BATON ROUGE - A major flood mitigation project at Woman's Hospital is underway. 

According to C.E.O Rene Ragas, the work is being done to improve drainage and rainwater retention across the Woman's Hospital campus and surrounding areas. The hospital came close to flooding in 2016. Staff had to implement aquadams to prevent water from entering the facility. 

"We're being proactive, and we don't want that to ever happen again," Ragas said.

Over the next 10 months, crews will make the retention ponds around the hospital deeper and wider. Trees and landscaping will be added as finishing touches. 

Ragas says the campus was built on an old golf course that was notorious for flooding and rainwater issues. He hopes with this investment, hospital patients and the surrounding community will have more peace of mind.

"That's historically been something that has been a challenge for the community, and as a community partner we're going to try to fix that." 

The work should be completed in February, weather permitting.