The parish’s public works department has completed its over $2.7 million asphalt maintenance project, which patched, milled and overlayed 39 roads in the parish.
Francesca Blanchard, a spokesperson for the parish, said the original project included only 25 roads and the base bid was $2,723,256. The parish has not received a final cost for the project.
“We were able to add some of the alternate roads due to the bid coming in under budget, and once the project’s final approval is complete, it will go to the [parish] council for approval,” she said.
A third-party assessment of all parish owned roads determined the roads chosen for maintenance. The project resurfaced roads rated “poor” or “very poor” in that assessment except for roads that have improvements scheduled outside of the asphalt maintenance project.
In a press release, Parish President Matthew Jewell said his administration adopted a system for professionally grading the condition of the parish’s asphalt streets four years ago. This approach, he said, allowed the parish to target the streets most in need of repair, regardless of location.
Blanchard said Jewell is committed to systematically targeting the streets in most need of repair and using taxpayer dollars wisely to ensure that our roads are maintained.
She said other roads, such as Willowdale Boulevard, have planned resurfacing projects or will be resurfaced as part of work adjacent to the roadway.
Barriere Construction, the contractor for the project, used a three-step process of patching, milling and overlaying the roads.
The patching took existing potholes and problem areas and filled them above the original grade of the street, then a milling machine came through to file off the top layers of asphalt to the base of the street, Blanchard said. She said the final overlay laid a smooth, even coat of asphalt.
“Safety is our utmost priority, so we wanted to fix those streets rated poor or very poor so our school buses and residents have smooth and safe roads to travel on,” Blanchard said.
The project began in late May and improved roads on the West Bank and the East Bank. The parish council approved the project at a council meeting on April 7.
