Council OKs Ascension projects

• By DAVID J. MITCHELL
• Advocate River parishes bureau
• Published: Sep 23, 2009 - Page: 4B

• Print
• Email
• Save
• Reprints
• Twitter
• Share

• Del.icio.us
• Digg
• Facebook
• Reddit
• 

GONZALES — Two projects to patch, overlay or reconstruct all or portions of 70 parish roads have cleared a hurdle, with parish officials now aiming to put the work out to bid by the first quarter of 2010, parish officials said Tuesday.

The two projects, which will cost $2.5 million each and are expected to be paid for with parish transportation and general fund dollars, will improve 16 miles of road combined, officials said.

Still in the planning stages, next year’s projects will be the first parish-funded overlay and reconstruction road work since fiscal 2007, Jackie Baumann, chief engineer for the parish Department of Public Works, said Tuesday.

On Thursday, Parish Council members approved road lists for the two projects on the council’s consent agenda with no comment.

Baumann said council approval was needed so parish officials could continue planning and designing the road improvements.

The parish is designing the road work in-house, and the council must still allocate funds to the projects during the 2010 budget process this fall.

According to the road project lists, though, the two projects would address a broad range of improvements.

For example, the lists call for patching and overlaying Amite River Road’s 1.5-mile length, which is across the Amite River from French Settlement, and for overlaying the 187-foot Redmond Road, which serves four homes between Duplessis and Dutchtown near La. 74.

Roads scheduled for improvement are located throughout the parish and serve a variety of numbers of homes, from more than 200 to three or fewer, the road lists say.

Baumann said some work would pave gravel roads that have been parish roads for years and have had to be maintained by road graders regularly.

She said the roads were selected after being inspected and rated in 2008 based on a parish rating system. Baumann said the parish has previously not had the revenue to do the work.

The 2010 projects should be completed within the same year they are put out to bid, Baumann said.