Hale Boggs closed for weekend

The Hale Boggs Bridge will be closed this weekend as work continues on a $30.5 million cable replacement project.

The closure is scheduled to begin at 10 p.m. on Friday, March 18 and end at 4 a.m. on Monday, March 21. A second closure could take place next weekend, but is contingent on planned work being completed during the first closure.

Before work can begin on the second tower, construction crews must move heavy equipment, requiring the setup of a large crane. Because of the size and weight of the crane, it was necessary to restrict traffic and loads while it is in operation, according to the Department of Transportation.

To date, the first 18 support cables of the down river and east bank span have been replaced on the first tower.

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).

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 around August 2012.

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 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.