[StBernard] Corps awards $7.4 million contract to Lafayette firm for Bayou Bienvenue swing bridge

[Westley Annis]

Corps awards $7.4 million contract to Lafayette firm for Bayou Bienvenue
swing bridge
Print Mark Schleifstein, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune By Mark Schleifstein,
NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune 
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on January 10, 2014 at 6:15 PM, updated January 10, 2014 at 6:16 PM

The Army Corps of Engineers has awarded a $7.4 million contract to a
Lafayette construction firm to build a swing bridge at the Bayou Bienvenue
sector gate in St. Bernard Parish so Lake Borgne Basin Levee District
employees can close access gates in the southern segment of a post-Katrina
hurricane storm surge floodwall.

The workers now must use a boat to reach that side of the new levee/T-wall
combination that runs along the eastern edge of St. Bernard Parish, which
increases the time needed to close the gates in the event of a tropical
storm or hurricane.

The bridge will be built on the protected side of the sector gate. The
contract also includes construction of roadways along the floodwall,
connecting to existing streets.

The bridge was requested by the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection
Authority-East, which oversees the levee district.

The contract with C.E.C. Inc., of Lafayette, includes the bridge, access
roads, grouted rip-rap, pile driving, pavement demolition, drainage box
culverts, inlets and piping.

The contract also includes a second concrete slab span bridge with curtain
walls, concrete bridge approach slabs, asphalt pavement, grading,
embankments, guard rails, and signing and pavement marking.

The company was one of 12 that responded to a web-based bid notice.

The work is expected to be completed by Aug. 30, 2015.