02/19/2026
✌🏼Here's what's happening on Saint Mary:
For several weeks now, a large portion of West Saint Mary Boulevard has been closed for construction. And in late January, a large black pipe, similar to a water slide, appeared in the center of the road.
The nearly 3-foot-high pipe covers the double yellow line in the middle of the road, as through traffic to and from the Saint Streets squeezes by for several hundred feet.
The construction is part of a project opening a new pump station for Lafayette Utility Systems to serve the city’s interior. Parts of the pipe currently above ground will connect the new, yet-to-be constructed $17 million pump station to the South Sewage Treatment Plant.
St. Mary was recently resurfaced, causing concerns among residents that placing the new pipe would undo that recent work, and prompt another lengthy road closure and extensive construction.
But the project will actually remove very little road. Instead, LUS is installing the pipe through a process called ‘boring,’ where multiple holes are drilled in the ground and the pipe is pulled through. The process creates only circular incisions in the roadway, rather than tearing up the entire surface.
According to LUS Director Jeff Stewart, the work on St. Mary should be completed by early March, weather permitting. The new pump station is scheduled to be completed by October, with minimal road closures expected after the work of placing the pipe underneath St. Mary is complete.
LUS estimates that the new pump station will add 2,000 sewer units to Lafayette’s Downtown, the Oil Center and surrounding neighborhoods.
Currently, only two developers have signed up to reserve sewer capacity created by the new pump station and piping. Once completed, more developers are expected to take advantage, especially as the interior of the city has seen limitations on development due to limited sewer capacity for several years now.
thecurrentla.com/2026/what-is-happening-on-st-mary-boulevard/