Some parish bridges will have to wait

Some parish-maintained bridges which were slated for repair or replacement have had to take a back seat to the nine which DODT closed last year.
Trent Broussard lives on Rusty Road off Grand Bois between Parks and Henderson in a small neighborhood of six families which can only access their homes via a parish-maintained bridge. Broussard told the Teche News that the bridge has needed repairs for years. A new deck was put onto the wood bridge three years ago but the beam structure under the deck is too deteriorated to hold the lag screws and many of the boards are loose. The parish reduced the weight limit on the bridge to three tons, which is less than most emergency vehicles.
Most of the residents are relatives of Broussard and some are elderly, which causes more concern about access for these vehicles. School busses stopped crossing the bridge even before the down-rating.
Parish President Guy Cormier, responding to inquiries by Teche News, said that the bridge is due for complete replacement. Funds were appropriated for the bridge and replacement was scheduled for early 2015 when the DODT closings happened in August of 2014.
Cormier said that the parish bridge work, important as it is, necessarily had to wait for the condemned bridges to be reopened.
Cormier also said that the fire department was aware of the problem and had a plan in place if an emergency occurred in the neighborhood.
Three parish bridges were closed last year after failing inspection by the state Department of Transportation and Development. Parish Council declared an emergency, clearing the way for repairs to begin immediately on Carter’s Landing Pontoon Bridge on Herman Dupuis Road (Butte la Rose) and fixed pile bridges on Bayou Mercier Road in Catahoula and on Duchamp Road west of St. Martinville.