Expect Hwy. 90 day lane closures in weeks ahead

Over the next couple of weeks, Barriere Construction will once again perform daytime roadwork on Highway 90, but project manager Danny Donahoe said he does not expect any traffic delays to occur.

The day work must be done to relocate the I-310 sign in Boutte and install catch basins near the I-310 eastbound turn lane.

Donahoe said that the work should not result in any lane closures, only shoulder closures.

The only exception will be a westbound single-lane closure in Paradis sometime in the next couple of weeks to place dirt on the shoulder. The crew still expects minimal traffic delays and Donahoe expects the lane closure to last two to three days at most.

In addition, milling and paving work will continue to be done at night over the next four weeks.

Since moving the work to night after lengthy traffic delays were caused on the first day of construction, Donahoe said the project has been continuing on schedule.

Officials with the Huey P. Long Bridge expansion project say that their project is also on track.

On Oct. 9, construction began on the West Bank traffic circle in Bridge City and is expected to last into 2012, according to Indira Parrales, spokesperson for the project. Eastbound vehicles will now be diverted to the old westbound lanes while westbound traffic is rerouted to cut straight through the traffic circle onto new U.S. 90 lanes on the west side of the railroad tracks.

“We’re changing the intersection and phasing that traffic circle out,” Parrales said. “We’re replacing it with a new signal light intersection.”

Besides the diverted traffic, Parrales said there are some other traffic impacts coming in the next two months.
In mid-November, there will be a complete bridge closure in order to work on widening the bridge.

“We will actually lift a bridge section out all at one time,” Parrales said. “We’re going to require a straight 48-hour closure of the bridge…going both directions.”

She was unsure of the exact date in November that this closure would occur, but said to check the Web site at www.timedla.com/bridge/long/overview for the most up-to-date information.

River Road and the levee under the East Bank side of the bridge will also be closed for about two months starting in late October to install steel girders. Parrales said that the road will be closed for safety reasons, as each girder weighs over 100 tons and is over 100 feet long and traffic should not be near the construction.

The work is part of the final phases of a project to add a third lane and shoulders in both directions on the narrow bridge, as well as redesign the traffic circle on the West Bank. The $1.2 billion project began in 2006 and is on track to be completed in 2013.