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Ascension Parish: Cracks in historic Donaldsonville courthouse unrelated to pump project
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DONALDSONVILLE - The Donaldsonville Courthouse will undergo another renovation, this one to fix cracks in the walls. Ascension Parish tells 2 On Your Side the cracks are unrelated to the Bayou Lafourche Freshwater District project where many people reported damage after months of pile-driving.
If you have been in the historic Donaldsonville Courthouse recently you may have noticed significant damage, thick cracks throughout the plaster walls, including one from the floor to the ceiling in the women's restroom.
David Weil works for Ascension Parish as an Executive Administrator and was there when the building underwent extensive work in 2022.
"They found the doors were sticking and getting unlevel," Weil said.
To fix that, a crew tunneled underneath the building and placed it on jacks. The building was then secured with new piers. Weil says the jacking caused cracks throughout the whole building. It's estimated to cost about $1.5 million to repair. Weil says the cracks in the courthouse are not related to the cracks nearby residents are seeing in their homes.
"I knew immediately it was from the pile-driving because it looks like my house," Chris Warner said.
For more than a year, 2 On Your Side has reported about some Donaldsonville residents experiencing foundation issues, gas leaks, broken windows, and cracks in pools. More than a dozen property owners say the Bayou Lafourche Freshwater District, which is building a pump station, didn't monitor the vibrations and noise levels coming from pile driving going on in 2023. That pile driving was happening feet away from their homes. Warner is one of those property owners who have filed a lawsuit and he also lives feet from the courthouse.
"I've got cracks in the plaster walls, I need a new roof - I got leaks in the roof spawned from the vibration," he said.
Warner has seen the inside of the Donaldsonville Courthouse.
"I would hope that the parish would investigate the source of the cracks, I doubt that all that cracking occurred within a year, a year and a half just because of settling," Warner said.
The courthouse is located at 300 Houmas Street, which is about 730 feet from the pump station project. Warner is up the street and lives about 905 feet from the pump station project.
The parish says it has heard concerns from its residents about the condition of the courthouse, some have inquired about the condition. Weil says the cracks are not a result of what went on nearby.
"I don't think that we had anything that was caused from that project in reference from making them any larger or spreading, no, not at all," Weil said.
Ascension Parish says the work at the courthouse will take time and it will require a specialist. The courthouse was built in 1888. The parish plans to use capital outlay and parish funds as well as grant money to repair the cracks in the building.
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