Spillway Road repair delayed

Hurricanes push back completion date to mid-October, early November

Work to repair the Spillway Road got underway the week of Sept. 29 after Hurricanes Gustav and Ike delayed the project, with the road set to be complete by mid-October or early November depending on weather conditions.

After the opening of the Bonnet Carre Spillway in April, the road was damaged extensively. The parish was trying to have the road repaired before school started, so that children wouldn’t have to travel on Airline Highway for classes, but the deadline was pushed back. One reason was because of the amount of time the project had to be advertised for bids and the other was the second rise in river levels after the flooding that took place in Iowa in August.

In September, Gustav and Ike delayed the project even more.

The lowest bid for the project came in on Aug. 14 and was for $489,700. The parish received $250,000 in funding from the state’s Department of Transportation, but they will still have to pay the rest of the total, which is $239,700.

The St. Charles Parish Council approved the road repair contract during a special meeting on Aug. 29, which was just three days before Hurricane Gustav made landfall.

The Spillway Road is maintained by parish government, although the land that it passes through is federally owned. While the Corps is not paying any of the costs associated with repairing the road, they are supplying some materials.

The work that will be done on the Spillway Road includes pulverizing the existing road and constructing a soil-cement base with asphalt paving the road in certain locations.

Seventy-two box culverts have already been installed in seven locations along the road over a compacted limestone bed.

All concrete box culverts and limestone bedding material have been supplied by the Corps.

Overall, there are 28 areas of the road that need repair, including two major areas where the road is completely washed out. The parish is resurfacing only damaged areas.
Parish President V.J. St. Pierre says that a complete resurfacing of the road is an option for the future, depending on the availability of grant funding.

Until the road is repaired, barricades will remain in place to block traffic.