Hale Boggs closed for weekend

Shutdown needed to move heavy equipment

The Hale Boggs Bridge will close completely in both directions from 7 p.m. Friday, Jan. 13 until 4 a.m. Monday, Jan. 16. The closure is needed to allow large cranes to move equipment on top of the pier on the East Bank side of the bridge to the pier on the West Bank side.

Work will also be performed on the bridge expansion joint currently covered by a steel plate.

The cable replacement project began in 2009 with an estimated end date of February 2011. However, because of delays the project will not be complete until this September.

The setback on the project was caused by engineering issues with the cable system, according to project manager Alan Weber.

“(The contractor) had to make some changes to the bridge before they could put the cables in, which we hadn’t planned on doing,” he said.

The contractor was using a replacement cable system that was too large for existing connection points, which required costly modifications of the bridge anchors.

Replacement of the cables was called for in 2007 after the Federal Highway Commission rated the bridge a 3 out of a possible 9 due to the effects of weather on the cables.

Each of the 72 cables is being replaced one at a time, Weber said, because the job involves installing a replacement cable next to an existing cable, applying tension and then removing the old cable. The current cables had a lifespan of 25 years, which they lived up to, and the new cables are designed to last 50 years.

It took nine years, 19,000 tons of steel, 72 cables comprised of thousands of wires, 700,000 bolts and 3,000 tons of asphalt to originally bridge the gap between Luling and Destrehan.

When the Hale Boggs Bridge was completed in 1983, the East and West Banks of St. Charles Parish were finally connected. The bridge is now a landmark in the parish with about 39,000 vehicles crossing it daily.

While the bridge is closed, detours include the Huey P. Long Bridge (Bridge City – Harahan), Crescent City Connection (New Orleans) and Veterans Memorial Bridge (Gramercy – Wallace).