The inside lane of U.S. 190 Eastbound at the Amite River Bridge will be closed periodically from Wednesday, Feb. 17, through Wednesday, March 31, from 8 a.m. – 3 p.m. daily. The closure is being put in place to allow crews to deliver materials to the project site.

In addition, the outside lane of U.S. 190 Eastbound at the Amite River Bridge will be closed Wednesday, Feb. 17 through Friday, Feb. 19 from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily to allow crews to make repairs to the temporary travel lane.

Both lanes will not be closed at the same time. The contractor will maintain one lane of traffic at all times.

This closure will allow vehicles up to 11 feet wide to pass through the construction zone. The road is open for regular traffic but oversize vehicles and loads are still under permit restrictions. Drivers may use I-12 as an alternate route.

DOTD appreciates your patience and reminds you to please drive with caution through the construction site and be on the lookout for work crews and their equipment.

Current work:

The contractor has resumed driving piles for the new eastbound span. Thus far, 185 of the 270 production piles have been driven. A pile is a concrete post that is driven into the ground to act as a leg or support for the new bridge. They are driven into the ground using a pile-driver. The pile-driver is a machine that acts similar to a hammer hitting a nail, driving the pile into the ground.

The contractor continues building the haul road on the west side of the river. This road will be used by the contractor to bring materials to and from the job site.

Brief description of completed work:

The contractor has completed building the haul road on the east side of the river. The haul road was used by the contractor to bring equipment and building material to and from the job site while working on the new westbound span.

All four of the test piles have been driven. Test piles help to gather information on the conditions at the job site such as installation methods for future piles and soil type. The information determines proper pile lengths and driving criteria for the production piles for the new bridge.

The contractor completed the westbound roadway and bridge. Traffic was moved to the new bridge on Sept. 11, 2009.

The old westbound bridge was demolished on Oct. 21, 2009.

State Project No. 013-05-0044
Project Description: Amite River Bridge and Approaches
Parish: Livingston
Contract Amount: $29.5 million
Project Engineer: Kris Wascom
Project Start Date: Dec. 2007
Project End Date: Dec. 2010

Yesterday, Governor Bobby Jindal announced a new cash management plan developed by the Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD) that will free up $120 million in cash within the state’s transportation system to accelerate road work all across Louisiana. Governor Jindal made the announcement in Lafayette and stressed that the new cash management plan builds off of his administration’s continued commitment to improve the state’s transportation infrastructure. Since Governor Jindal entered office, a total of $3.36 billion in state and federal funds has been invested in the state’s roads – more than Louisiana’s last three governors combined over the same period of time.

The only project in East Baton Rouge Parish that is benefiting from the freed up funds is the Magnolia Bridge project. $23 million will be dedicated to the Amite River Bridge on Magnolia Bridge Road. This project will replace the bridge on LA-64 that connects East Baton Rouge and Livingston Parishes.  The new structure will accommodate the possible future four-laning of LA-64. The new bridge will be a four lane one that will replace a 70 year old 2 lane bridge currently in use. Original bids for the Magnolia Bridge project were supposed to be taken sometime in the 3rd or 4th quarter of this year. The push to make these funds available will move the project bid dates up by approximately 6 months.

The current Magnolia Bridge is quite a large headache for anyone traveling westbound in the morning and eastbound in the evening. It’s only one of 4 crossings for the Amite River from Port Vincent all the way to the northern portion of East Baton Rouge. Anyone wishing to get to Watson from the Baton Rouge area or back must utilize this bridge. With only 2 lanes it really puts a strain on the 23,000 or so vehicles that cross it daily. The new 4 lane bridge and the eventual upgrading of Hwy 64 to 4 lanes will definitely ease some traffic headaches in the rapidly growing areas of Central and Watson.

The inside lane of U.S. 190 Eastbound at the Amite River Bridge will be closed periodically from Monday, Jan. 4, through Friday, Jan. 29, from 9 a.m. – 2 p.m. The closure is being put in place to allow crews to deliver materials to the project site.

This closure will allow vehicles up to 11 feet wide to pass through the construction zone. The road is open for regular traffic but oversize vehicles and loads are still under permit restrictions. Drivers may use I-12 as an alternate route.

DOTD appreciates your patience and reminds you to please drive with caution through the construction site and be on the lookout for work crews and their equipment.

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.