Anyone who has traveled between Baton Rouge and Denham Springs over the past, oh, 75 years definitely recognizes the image in our article. It’s the Hwy 190 bridge across the Amite River headed westbound from Denham Springs to Baton Rouge. It was constructed in 1932 with the eastbound span being added later in 1961. Ironically enough, the westbound span seems to have held up much better than the newer eastbound span. It seems like patching up concrete holes in the eastbound side was a weekly occurrence.

Last year construction began on a new bridge to replace the ailing old one. The new Amite River bridge project is 1.2 miles in length along U.S. 190 beginning at Old Hammond Highway and ending approximately a quarter of a mile west of South River Road. Currently, this section of U.S. 190 serves nearly 26,000 vehicles per day. The new spans will be built to the north of the existing spans and will consist of two continuous 2,900-foot long and 40 foot wide spans. Each span will have two 12-foot lanes, a 10-foot outside shoulder, and a 4-foot inside shoulder. The contractor in charge of the project, James Construction Group LLC of Baton Rouge, has promised to maintain 2 lanes of travel throughout the entire project. Definitely good news for any commuters that use this route at peak traffic times.

On September 10th, the westbound span was officially completed and open for westbound travel. Work to remove the old westbound span began immediately after routing westbound traffic to the new span. The removal will terminate with the demolition of the steel span which has served as an icon in this area for 77 years. The demolition, which is scheduled for Wednesday, October 21, will be done with explosives that will result in the steel span falling into the Amite River. The steel will be removed by cranes following the demolition. During the demolition, 190 will be closed from 9:30 AM until after the task is complete and the current bridges have been deemed safe for travel. Officials have stated that it could possibly be closed until 3:00 PM but that they are hoping to have the road opened completely just after lunch. Once the old westbound span is completely removed, work on the new eastbound span, which is partially complete, will get back underway. The entire project’s estimated time of completion, at this point, is December 2010. Total project cost: $29.5 million.