Client: LaDOTD - Louisiana, Statewide
Completion Date: N/A
Completed in 1935 and named after the former Louisiana Governor, the Huey P. Long Bridge is one of three major Mississippi River crossings serving the New Orleans area. Nearly 50,000 vehicles a day travel across the bridge, and river traffic averages more than 6,000 vessels each year.
The Louisiana TIMED Program (LTM) will widen the current bridge to include three 11-foot travel lanes in each direction, with the addition of inside and outside shoulders. The current construction plans call for no additional pier foundations for the main river bridge, but rather widening of pier shafts above the existing caisson foundations and the addition of two new parallel trusses to accommodate the widened roadway along the main bridge. For the approaches, new parallel structures will be built to accommodate the new roadways.
Further, LA DOTD and LTM have committed to maintaining all traffic, including rail, roadway, and river throughout the project. “The project itself is an engineering feat,” says Juan Murillo, who serves as the LTM project manager for the Huey P. Long Bridge project, “but the true marvel will be maintaining traffic during construction. Lane closures and traffic slowing will be necessary, but there is no option for closing the bridge.”
