Posted on January 23, 2026
The University Lakes Restoration Project, which aims to sustain the lakes system and add recreational value, is still underway.
Project manager Mark Goodson said the project phases are concurrent but that the team kicked off the final phase, 2C, last fall. Phase 2C includes raking and dredging a small strip along the western shoreline of University Lake near Sorority Row, Goodson explained.
The restoration project has been in progress since the summer of 2023. A large part of the project’s purpose is to deepen the lakes, which used to be dangerously shallow.
Goodson said that when the team started working on the lakes, they were at an average depth of 2-and-a-half feet. He mentioned that the drought in the summer of 2023 caused even shallower depths. Goodson said that the team is dredging most areas of the lakes to 6 feet and others to 9 or 10 feet.
Edward Laws, LSU environmental science professor, said that since the creation of the lakes in the 1930s, there has been an understanding that they would need to be dredged from time to time.
He mentioned that storm sewers discharge into the lakes and material that accumulates on the grounds of parking lots washes into the water.
“They’re bound to fill up,” Laws said.
Laws estimated the lakes will need to be dredged again in 15-20 years. However, Goodson explained that the goal is for them to never need dredging again.
The parts of the lake getting dredged to 9 or 10 feet are called forebays. Goodson said these will act as underwater pits that trap the sediment entering the lake.
“In 20-25 years those forebays, those traps will have to be cleaned out, but that should prevent the lakes from silting in overall,” Goodson said.
The material dredged from the bottom of the lakes is also being used in the project in various ways. Goodson said that the majority of it is being used to expand the LSU bird sanctuary.
The project team is also using dredged material to construct living shorelines that create habitat and help filter runoff before it enters the lakes.
Additionally, Goodson said a long-term goal is to use the dredged material for new bike and pedestrian paths around the lakes.
Goodson said the most difficult part of the project so far has been working with the soils in the lakes. He said the soil and sediment at the bottom of the lakes is highly organic and difficult to handle, especially when trying to use it for the shorelines or work on May Street.
Nonetheless, the team is working to make the lakes as sustainable as possible. Goodson said that dredging and improvements to the lakes should be complete by the end of this year, but road work might linger into next year.
