BATON ROUGE — Prep work has started to return the USS Kidd to Baton Rouge sometime next year after its $16 million repair and restoration in Houma.

LEMOINE recently partnered with the USS Kidd Museum to support shoreside preparations ahead of the ship’s return, with Lanehart Inc. pressure washing the concrete and steel walkway and Pittsburgh Paints donating the paint coatings needed for the refreshening project. Those preparations are being completed at no cost to the museum.

Executive director Parks Stephenson said the museum and LEMOINE partnered for the project when the ship was still expected to return to its dock this year. The restoration work is completed by the Houma shipyard, he said, they just need the Mississippi River to raise to levels safe enough to move the vessel.

“We are totally at the mercy of the Mississippi River right now,” Stephenson said. “The ship is ready to return at any time. Everybody from the shipyard, the Coast Guard, us—we’re all motivated to move as soon as we can.”

The $16 million contracted cost of repairs included a provision for the ship’s return to Baton Rouge, he said. While the museum usually covers operation costs for the ship, the renovation project was funded by the state legislature.

Returning to its home dock in Baton Rouge will be a two-day trip, according to Stephenson. The USS Kidd will have to travel down the Houma Navigational Canal, across the Gulf and into the mouth of the Mississippi River. Overall, it’s a roughly 360-mile journey.

“We can’t do the intracoastal canals because the (USS Kidd) draws too deep of a draft,” Stephenson explained, notion that they’re waiting for the Mississippi River to reach 32 feet in Baton Rouge.