Louisiana Dept of Transport

Building a new lifelineKeith Regan reports on the approaches to environmental sensitivity and financial viability taken by a massive roadway project in Louisiana. Long before hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast in August 2005, the roadway known as LA 1 had been battered by tropical storms, the grade-level roadway often submerged by storm-driven tides. Meanwhile, the vertical lift bridge that enabled shrimp boats and oil supply vessels to navigate past the highway often experienced mechanical and electrical glitches. The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD) is now overseeing construction of the new LA 1ÔÇöwhat eventually will be an 18-mile, fully access-controlled, open toll elevated highway connecting Golden Meadow and Port Fourchon. The massive construction projectÔÇöthe first phase alone will cost more than $361 millionÔÇöhas relied on innovative techniques from the time it was first conceived and will be one of the longest elevated highways in the state and in the country when itÔÇÖs completed. Eventually, four lanes of highwayÔÇötwo northbound and two southboundÔÇöwill be built an average of 22 feet above sea level, with the existing bridge then to be removed. Even before the environmental impact statement (EIS) for the project was submitted, the DOTD was aware of the sensitivity of the Barataria Estuary, which contains some of the most diverse and fertile habitats in the world, says Tony Ducote, project management director for the department.┬á For instance, instead of bringing traditional drilling equipment into the area to take test borings and soil samples, airboats and other alternatives were used. Part of the EIS also involved the inclusion of top-down construction of part of the elevated highway, a process that involves doing the majority of the work from the bridge itself or from a temporary structure, minimizing the intrusion and impact on the wetlands below. Including that technique helped the project clear the EIS processÔÇöknown to take up to a decade on large-scale projectsÔÇöin relatively short order, Ducote notes. Still, timing has complicated the project along the way. Originally, the first phases of the work were bundled together into a single project. As bid documents were being finalized, Katrina struck, dramatically driving up construction costs in the area. A decision was made to phase the project, a move that also enabled phased-in financing, which relies on a combination of sources, including bonding against future toll revenues. ÔÇ£After Katrina, prices went out of control, so we went back and did some value engineering work and ended up with a more manageable project,ÔÇØ Ducote says, though the phases combined still cost more than the original full project. While LA 1 was not seriously damaged by the storm, the roadway was underwater and impassable for several days. ÔÇ£Katrina only reinforced the need for the project.ÔÇØLA 1 is the only means of land access to Port Fourchon, where many major oil companies have their Gulf of Mexico operations based and which services approximately 17 percent of the countryÔÇÖs domestic and imported oil and gas. It is also the sole connection to Grand Isle, LouisianaÔÇÖs only inhabited barrier island, a popular destination for recreational fishermen, campers and birdwatchers. And LA 1 is the only means of evacuation for approximately 35,000 people, including 6,000 offshore workers. A local group known as the LA 1 Coalition has helped drive public support for the improvements and was instrumental in securing backing in Congress for federal funding, Ducote notes. Construction challenges are numerous and include the fact that the area is in a remote part of the state, meaning added cost and time to move heavy equipment and construction personnel into place. The post-Katrina cleanup also put the DOTD into competition with many other rebuilding projects in the Gulf region and prompted officials to actively shop the contracts around the country. ÔÇ£YouÔÇÖve also got fairly harsh environmental conditions and very poor geotechnical soils that required very large and long pilings to support the highway,ÔÇØ Ducote notes. At the same time, Katrina drove home the need to build the structure to withstand powerful storms. Unfortunately, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) is only now finalizing design specifications for such situations. ÔÇ£In the meantime, we had to work with national and local experts to come up with the design on our own on how exactly to handle wave forces, tidal action and other impacts.ÔÇØThe inclusion of top-down construction also had the potential to drive up costs and lengthen the project. The technique requires extensive up-front mobilization of equipment, requiring contractors to essentially reach backward to grab materials and move forward over the bridge as it is built in place. The technique has been used in the state before, with a bridge on I-310 just north of New Orleans built with it several years ago, Ducote notes. ÔÇ£We were able to find contractors who had experience with it,ÔÇØ he adds. Contractors performing the ongoing work are being offered incentives to finish on time. Current plans have late 2009 deadlines for the IB and IC sections of the projectÔÇöthe approaches to the 73-foot vertical clearance, 4-mile-long Leeville Bridge over Bayou Lafourche and the bridge itselfÔÇöand the DOTD is offering daily incentive payments if work is completed early. This spring, bids were received for the toll road amenitiesÔÇöincluding a customer service center, ITS system and lighting. Those projects should all wrap around the same time. The incentives will more than pay for themselves if the DOTD is able to open the toll portion of the road ahead of schedule, Ducote points out. The highway will use open-road tolling, which requires no stopping or slowing at tollbooths but uses automatic transponders to charge driversÔÇÖ accounts. The DOTD plans a public outreach campaign to educate drivers about the toll plans well before the new sections of the roadway open. ÔÇ£Our partners in the coalition have done a great job of keeping the local people informed of our progress, but we see that outreach as another step,ÔÇØ Ducote adds. ÔÇ£Obviously, after you work this hard and this long on a project, you want it to be received smoothly.ÔÇØ┬á Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} *┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á *┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á *   ┬áFirst published June 2008