METAIRIE, La (WGNO) — During heavy rains, flooding used to be a big headache on Severn Avenue. After about a decade of planning, Jefferson Parish moved forward with a giant plan to improve drainage and more down the street. That construction work led to about three more years of headaches. Now drivers are seeing the benefits.

Thursday afternoon, parish leaders cut the ribbon on the work which is almost finished along a mile-long stretch of Severn. It includes new underground drainage pipes, as large as 60 inches across, as well as bike lanes and new pavement. Because the project required work from many parish departments, the cost could also be spread out among them.

“This represented a lot of different funding sources.  We were able to get probably half of the $15 million from the federal government, along with all of our departments kicking in,” Parish President Cynthia Lee Sheng told the crowd at the ribbon cutting. “It was a drainage project, it was a roadway project, it was a streets project, it was a parkways project.”

The project still has a little more work to go. The parish plans to add new light posts and a sculpture as part of its sculpture trail.