Excessive ground settlement problems have halted progress on the new $171 million Belle Chasse Bridge in Louisiana, pushing back its originally scheduled completion of April 2024 to February 2025 and bringing fines of $10,000 a day for the developer.
Routine construction inspections conducted in late June for the new 3,400-foot-long crossing of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway southeast of New Orleans discovered that recently constructed precast and prestressed concrete beam approaches for the span of the bridge’s two northbound lanes had settled beyond design specifications. .
Project spokeswoman Angela Noote says that while some ground settlement is expected due to Louisiana’s unique geological and environmental conditions, “this particular settlement has exceeded our initial expectations.”
While the scope of the settlement and soil remediation strategy is still being assessed, Noote says current planned mitigation includes replacing approaches. That process could take eight to 10 weeks, depending on approval of the repair plan, and cost more than $2 million, he adds.
In addition to bearing the cost of liquidation mitigation, the development team is being assessed $10,000 in daily liquidated damages for missing the original target completion date. If the team meets the new date of February 10, 2025 for final acceptance by the state, the fines would total about $3 million.
The two-lane southbound section of the new bridge opened to traffic last December and is not affected by the ground settlement problem.
Begun in 2020, the Belle Chasse Bridge project is the first construction effort by the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development to use a public-private partnership, led by the Belle Chasse Development Consortium of Plenary Infrastructure under a design, build, 30-year financing and operation. – Keep the agreement. A joint venture of Traylor Bros., Inc. and Massman Construction Co. acts as a contractor.
With a vertical span of 73 feet and a horizontal span of 150 feet wide to accommodate marine traffic, the new three-span continuous steel unit bridge over the waterway replaces a 56-year-old vertical lift bridge and 2,654 feet long. and a 1,938-foot-long 1950s-era parallel tunnel, both of which required increasingly frequent and disruptive repairs.
Since the opening of a two-lane southbound section, the project team has decommissioned and closed the tunnel, which was known locally for its persistent leaks. The existing vertical lift bridge, which continues to run north on the waterway, will be demolished once the new bridge is completed. A new electronic toll system for the crossing will also be activated at that time.
