The Wilbur Smith and Associates team may not be pouring asphalt, but the work that the engineering firm continues to do along the LA 1 corridor will serve as the foundation for the successful highway construction project to come.

According to Louisiana Department of Transportation Project Manager David Miller, the engineering, design, surveying and right-of-way acquisition process for highway pre-construction is proceeding on schedule, and local residents and workers should begin seeing some heightened activity in the area very soon.

Engineers and surveyors are now wrapping up the line-in grade study, which sets the final alignment of the new highway project based on projections made in the final Environmental Impact Statement. Preparation of the preliminary construction plan is scheduled to begin by November, with crews going into the field to help plan the details of the future highway construction process.

Work crews will begin driving test-pilings along the new highway corridor immediately north and south of Leeville, as well as east toward Fourchon by January. In the meantime, transportation officials have been meeting with Department of Natural Resources officials and other state regulatory agencies to secure permits for the test pilings and actual construction.

The entire $11.5 million pre-construction phase should be completed by September 15, 2004, and according to Miller, DOTD expects to advertise for construction bids for the new fixed bridge at Leeville as early as the spring of 2004.

"The existing Leeville bridge is probably the most critical in the state because it is the only way in and out of Grand Isle and Fourchon," Miller explains, citing the urgency of the bridge replacement. "If a catastrophic storm were to hit the area, we would more than likely lose that lift bridge."

The first phase of construction in the LA 1 improvement project, estimated at $150 million, includes the new fixed-level bridge over Bayou Lafourche at Leeville and eight miles of two-lane elevated highway from the bridge to Fourchon.

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Press contact:
Roy Francis, LA 1 Coalition
985.448.4485