Council awards $1.4 million work bid to Barriere Construction
A $1.4 million bid has been awarded to Barriere Construction Co. in Boutte to improve 32 roadways in St. Charles Parish.
The work, allocated as part of 2015 Road Maintenance Program, is scheduled to be done in fall.
Roadways listed for upgrades by area include:
• Boutte: Maple Street
• Des Allemands: Dan’s Lane, Dufrene Lane, Easy Street,Sunshine Drive, Tregle Lane and Barrios Lane
• Destrehan: Villiere Place
• Hahnville: Hahn Street, Butternut Street, Julia Street and King Street
• Killona: Railroad Drive
• Luling: Seymore Lane, Mimosa Avenue, Oak Lane, Badalamenti Street and Santa Cruz Court
• Montz: Etienne Street and Kenner Lane
GEC Inc. Consulting Engineers performed design work on the improvements, which includes the study, design and administration of the repairs, overlays and shoulder and/or curb repair.
The Parish Council approved GEC as engineer on the programs from 2012 through 2015.
Road funding is coming with $500,000 from the state of Louisiana’s transportation fund and from a parish property tax, which was set at 5.94 mills this year.
Work will be done in phases on many of the streets, beginning with patching and continue with removing asphalt (2 inches).
Repaving will follow and then adding and spreading compacted limestone or dirt along roadway shoulders to eliminate drop-off.
Parish Engineer Lee Zeringue said the fall list is three roads longer than last year’s one.
The parish has 782 roads equaling 213.6 miles.
“All roads this year were chosen to maximize the number of roads repaired for the budgeted dollars,” Zeringue said. “There are times where we decide not to repair a road due to anticipated construction scheduled in relation to another project. We would rather not repair a road only for it to be damaged during construction for another project.”
The parish’s Public Works personnel will oversee the roadwork.
“Our road maintenance program in particular is one of those projects in which citizens truly see their tax dollars at work,” St. Charles Parish President V.J. St. Pierre Jr. said. “Combined with the maintenance work provided by our in-house crews, this work continues to greatly improve the state of parish infrastructure.”
Barriere Construction will notify affected residents before work begins mostly with door hangers, which should allow time for obstructions, such as parked cars, to be removed.
Roads are surveyed yearly and evaluated for repair based on a priority rating system, with roads getting points based on nearby infrastructure, the number of dwellings they contain, access to emergency services, estimated daily traffic and existing condition.
Parish Council members also have input into which roads are selected.
Parish Engineer Lee Zeringue said the parish has two funding sources for road maintenance: The Parish Transportation fund with state money (requires all roads be ranked by a system the parish created) and the Roads and Drainage fund (road requests generated by the administration, council, Public Works foremen and public).
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