The Louisiana Dept. of Transportation and Development is preparing to implement emergency repairs on a highway overpass hit by a truck in December. It is the second time in about two years that the bridge carrying Interstate 10 over Interstate 49 in Lafayette Parish has required repairs after being struck.
The damage this time is not as severe as in the 2023 incident, says Mark Arceneaux, area engineer for Louisiana DOTD. But an exterior girder on the third of four spans carrying eastbound I-10 over northbound I-49 was damaged beyond repair and requires replacement. In the meantime, DOTD closed one lane on the overpass and wrapped fabric around the damaged area to prevent any damaged concrete from falling.
The scope of repairs includes replacing the 82-ft-long girder, a portion of the deck and guardrail barriers, as well as patching some smaller areas of concrete spalling, according to Chris Giglio, project manager with Lafayette, La.-based contractor CEC Inc., which is performing the repairs.
DOTD selected the same team of CEC and consulting engineer Lafayette-based Huval & Associates that worked on the previous repairs because officials were “extremely happy with the work they did,” Arceneaux says.
“We didn’t want to reinvent the wheel,” he says. “We knew it would go much quicker [with the same team].”
With less damage this time, the repairs are also less intensive. The 2023 crash damaged a larger section of the overpass. The team then opted to assemble a replacement section offsite, and then installed it using self-propelled modular transporters to “piece it in like a puzzle,” Giglio says.
This time, CEC plans to cut the barrier to remove it in segments, and then cut through the deck concrete between the exterior girder and the next interior girder to remove the entire damaged piece with the section of deck on top of it, Giglio says. Then they will erect the new girder the same night. That will be followed by concrete work and installation of the new barrier and mounted signs.
Rather than hastening the repairs, the team is planning to perform the work over four consecutive weekends in order to lessen the impact on drivers, Arceneaux says. The only major closure will be the weekend of Feb. 7, when I-49 northbound will be completely closed in the area while crews remove the damaged girder and install the replacement.
DOTD is not planning any changes to make it less likely that trucks will again hit the bridge with its 15-ft, 6-in. clearance. Arceneaux says the two collisions were most likely just an unfortunate coincidence—the overpass had been there for decades without issue.
“The CDL drivers need to inspect their load, make sure their heights are correct and inspect their routes, which is something that they’re required to do,” Arceneaux says. “Unfortunately, we can’t be everywhere at the same time making sure that all these people do what they’re supposed to do. But this overpass has been installed for many decades, and it just so happened that this happened twice in a two-year span.”
