| Main Menu | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
 |
 |
 |
Press Room Jindal endorses plans for using rubble of twin spans | Jindal endorses plans for using rubble of twin spans |
|
|
By Andrew Vanacore Gov. Bobby Jindal on Tuesday threw his support behind plans for using concrete from the demolition of the Interstate 10 twin spans to create fishing reefs in Lake Pontchartrain and help shore up New Orleans' storm defenses. The reef plans call for sinking the rubble of two 500-foot bridge sections at two locations between I-10 and the U.S. 11 bridge. The reefs, proposed by the Coastal Conservation Association, a nonprofit group, are intended to boost recreational fishing in the area. A team from the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development, with help from other agencies, is still reviewing separate proposals for using the concrete, which Jindal said will save the state upward of $15 million. Parts of the bridge will likely go toward reinforcing levees and strengthening breakwaters off the coast to help reduce storm surge in the lake. “For the first time ever in Louisiana's history, we'll be reusing part of our roadways to help protect our coast and create artificial habitats for our fisheries," Jindal said. "It's a good day for our fisheries, a good day for our coast and a good day for Louisiana." More than a half-dozen nonprofit, federal, state and local groups have pitched ideas for using the roughly 10-mile span of concrete and metal, which was badly damaged during Hurricane Katrina. Garret Graves, director of the Governor's Office of Coastal Activities, said the DOTD team is consulting with the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority to review storm-related proposals based on the level of hurricane protection they offer, their cost and possible environmental impact. He said he expects the group to decide within a month which projects should go forward. Any costs that run beyond what it would normally cost to take down the bridge -- such as transporting sections of the span long distances by barge -- would be covered by the state or the organization that recommended the project, Graves said. The proposals include a combination of measures that officials said Tuesday would help get Louisiana closer to achieving 100-year storm protection, the Army Corps of Engineers' goal for 2011. The Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation, for example, is proposing that sections of the bridge be split in half and sunk in water about 3 feet deep in the Biloxi Marsh southeast of New Orleans, the group's director, Carlton Dufrechou, said. Another proposal from the group calls for sinking rubble in the lake about 150 feet off the coast of Jefferson Parish to help protect the levees from storm surge and restore the space in between as wetlands. Both measures would be aimed at pushing the coastline further from populated areas. "The bottom line is sustainability," Dufrechou said. "If the coast is there, that reduces the storm surge on the levees. The less storm surge on the levees, the higher the degree of protection metro New Orleans has." However long it takes the state to sort out its plans for the bridge, actual construction of storm barriers using the rubble is still a ways off. It will likely be the fall of 2009 before Boh Brothers Construction Co. has the new bridge open and can begin taking down the old span, said Robert Boh, the company's president. The company did a similar project near St. George Island in Florida, where barges were used to drop almost an entire bridge span into the Gulf of Mexico, he said. But it will be a first for the company in Louisiana. "It's a wonderful idea," Boh said. "We're just glad to be a part of it." |
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
