Central Area Road Construction Update

At the CCA Forum Tuesday evening Mr. Harry Rauls gave an update on the progress of the road construction projects in and around Central.  The updates were the direct result of inquiries made by Scott Wilson to Pete Newkirk, the DPW director for Baton Rouge.  Our thanks to both Scott Wilson and the CCA for facilitating this update.

Central Thruway:  The Council last Wednesday just accepted the bid of James Construction Group, LLC who submitted a low bid of $9,486,301.80 for the bridges to cross the ICCN Railroad and Sullivan Lateral for the new Central Thruway. This  600 day contract will coincide with the $30M construction and installation being performed by L&A Contracting Company of two (2) of the main bridges which will span the Comite River and a portion of Beaver Bayou.  This project began on April 8, 2008 and is already underway.  The contract time is 900 days – both these projects are on schedule to be completed by 2010.  The bridge work at Greenwell Springs Road (next to Sullivan Road) should bid later this year.  Paving for the entire road should begin in 2010 and finish by the end of that year.

Regarding the bridges on Central Thruway, 12 piles and caps and six (6) spans with girders have been installed on the Comite River section.   14 piles and caps and three (3) spans with girders have been installed on the Beaver Bayou portion of the project.  Almost 50% of the piles and caps have been installed on these two (2) bridge sections as of this date.

Sullivan Road Project:  This contract with PEC Corporation is going to Council next Wednesday and includes roadway design studies on Hooper Road (Hwy 408) from Joor Road east of Sullivan Road and Sullivan Road (Hwy 3034) as well as both sewer and roadway design from Wax Road north to Hooper Road.  This design will be funded by the City of Central through their portion of the 1/2 cent sales tax – the road portion being ($325,346.37) and the sewer portion ($78,307.53) will be funded partially through the State Capital Outlay process for a total contract amount of $403,653.90. 

The design for Sullivan Road (Greenwell Springs to Wax) is complete and 55% of the right-of-way has been acquired.  The project is scheduled to be bid in June of this