Coming soon to a culvert near you

The city of Eunice is in the process of buying neighboring Rayne’s award-winning culvert-cleaning device.
Mayor Scott Fontenot said Friday he is ordering custom-made metal plates that are pulled through culverts.
The device cost about $1,000, Fontenot said.
“They get all the metal and they build the device, custom build it the way the designed, and they don’t make any money on it,” he said.
“They are pretty just doing this out of the good of their heart to help everybody out with drainage problems,” Fontenot.
Buying the culvert-cleaner is cheaper than contracting the cleaning, he said.
Alderman Marion “Nootsie” Sattler is one of the city officials have traveled to Rayne to watch demonstrations.
There are three round metal plates of different sizes from a small riding mower tire to a car tire that are hooked up to a backhoe or tractor and pulled through the culvert, Sattler said.
“It was amazing to see the stuff that came out of the culvert,” he said.
The contracted method the city has used in the past to use a pressurized water spay to clear the culverts.
Rayne Mayor Charles Robichaux said in an email that his city developed the device in the face of overwhelming drainage problems.
In 2017, the Louisiana Municipal Association awarded the city of Rayne top honors for the “Culvert Angioplasty.”
Since then Rayne officials and workers have been demonstrating the device to others such as the Eunice mayor and alderman.
According to the Rayne Acadian-Tribune, “The project involved a new method of clearing drainage culverts in the city’s ditches. It was noted of the tools and methods required for the ongoing project were conceived, designed and fabricated entirely by city employees.”
The operations was described as:
“Rayne city employees devised a method, using expandable poles, to run a line from one culvert opening to the next opening. A metal disc the approximate size of the culvert opening is attached to one end of the line and, using city equipment (i.e., a bulldozer) the line is pulled back through the culvert.
“As the disc is pulled through the culvert, a ‘tube’ of sludge and sediment is pushed ahead of it into the open ditch. That material is then removed from the ditch, stored and recycled.”
The city of Rayne earned a “Best of Show” award for the device from the municipal association.