Completed sections of LA 1 open to traffic

07/13/2009

If you’re heading to the International Tarpon Rodeo in Grand Isle, La., on July 24-27, you can get there by driving over the first completed improvements of low-lying, flood-prone Louisiana Hwy. 1.

At a ribbon cutting ceremony July 7, the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development announced the opening of the 73-ft navigational clearance fixed bridge over Bayou Lafourche, the Tommy Doucet Bridge, and about 4.4 mi of elevated bridge approaches and connectors.

The two projects, totaling $166 million, were delivered by the joint venture partnership of Traylor Bros. Construction, Evansville, Ind., and Massman Construction Co., Kansas City. The improvements mark the first completed projects in a multi-phase program to construct an 18-mi segment of LA 1 between Golden Meadow and Port Fourchon.

On July 27, the DOTD plans to activate the state’s first totally electronic open road tolling for southbound drivers entering that portion of LA 1 at Leeville. Instead of causing traffic and exhaust congestion by stopping at manned toll booths, drivers will pre-purchase a one-time or account “GeauxPass” from newly constructed kiosks or a customer service center on Hwy. 3235 in Golden Meadow.

As vehicles pass beneath the tolling gantries, electronic sensors communicate with toll tag transponders that drivers place in their front windshields.

Once the toll road is open, the Traylor/Massman joint venture will begin demolishing the 50-year old Bayou Lafourche vertical lift bridge, which is high maintenance and prone to scouring, says Tony Ducote, DOTD project management director.

The new bridge will then be the only route to Grand Isle and Port Fourchon, which is the country’s top port servicing the oil and gas industry in the Gulf of Mexico.

“The holy trinity of issues in South Louisiana is hurricane protection, coastal restoration and highway infrastructure,” says Reggie Dupre Jr., former La. senator, District 20 and executive director of the Terrebonne levee and conservation district. “We cannot build major infrastructure projects without the two nasty Ts – taxes or tolls.”

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