By james art BATON ROUGE – Drivers heading west on Airline Expressway can expect a brief detour at the Plank Road Bridge while the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development makes necessary repairs to the overpass.
Commuters will have to take the service road around the construction site while DOTD works 24 hours a day for the next 14 days to complete.
DOTD spokesman Rodney Mallett said by doing that, they’ll be able to get off the road faster.
“If we didn’t do it this way, if we were just going to close one lane and follow the regular bridge repair protocol, it could take quite a while,” Mallett said.
Plank Road remains open, but the on-ramp to US 190 West is closed. It was not an emergency closure, but a planned maintenance project by DOTD.
“This is closure that was much needed. We knew this was coming. We knew this project was on the books,” Mallett said.
They are repairing the girder that carries most of the load on the high-traffic bridge.
“It’s really a full-scale repair, so it’s joists and bulkheads and things like that, so they can raise the deck a little bit and do those repairs and then she’ll be ready to go,” Mallett said.
The bridge is about 60 years old. Mallett says older bridges often need repairs.
“A lot of our older bridges in the state need repairs on a semi-regular basis, and so this one needed repairs not regularly, but occasionally, but this full-scale major repair needed to be done,” Mallett said.
Construction is expected to be completed by November 3.