After a Pause for Rita, Lake Pontchartrains Twin-span Repairs to Resume
Hurricane Rita may have slowed down progress on the reconstruction of the Interstate 10 twin span over Lake Pontchartrain, but its too early to tell. On Sept. 22, crews began demobilizing in preparation for the second hurricane to threaten New Orleans within a month. They probably wont finish remobilizing until Sept. 25, said John Horn, vice president and project engineer for David Volkert & Associates Inc., the Mobile, Ala.-based consulting engineer hired as the Louisiana Dept. of Transportation and Developments on-site representative. Damage caused by Rita was nothing compared to the original devastation caused by Katrina. We had one span that was teetering on the edge of the bent and it fell off, Horn said. We wouldnt have used that one anyway because there wasnt any way for us to lift it back into place.
Lost time is probably the biggest consequence of Rita. We had to move our equipment to safe harbor, said Al Flettrich, bridge division manager for Boh Bros. Construction LLC, the New Orleans-based repair contractor. We were granted an extension of four days. Except for this all is going well and we are on schedule. Flettrich added that the bridges sustained additional damage from Hurricane Rita. The contractor and state inspectors were performing an assessment on Sept. 27.