I-10 westbound weigh station reopens

• By STEVEN K. LANDRY
• Special to The Advocate
• Published: Dec 3, 2008 - UPDATED: 12:37 a.m.

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BREAUX BRIDGE — After 15 months, truckers in late November once again began trickling into the repaired Interstate 10 westbound weigh station between Lafayette Parish and Breaux Bridge in St. Martin Parish.

The westbound station — directly across from the eastbound station along I-10 — had been shut down since August 2007 for $200,000 in repairs. The scale required major repairs to its static, or permanent, underground-based scale, said Bill Fontenot of the Department of Transportation and Development.

Late last year, workers began repairing the station in the rural area of I-10 near mile-marker 108 by ripping up the concrete to investigate the scale’s underground components.

Fontenot originally predicted an early-2008 reopening, but he said that with any repair project the argument centers on whether to rebuild certain parts or buy new ones.

“There was some debate as to how much of the pit to rebuild and it took a while to make those decisions,” Fontenot said. Eventually, some aspects went out for bid while “the department was able to handle” others.

Bidding took time because of state-law timetables. Also, it was necessary to redesign some of the underground pit’s fractured walls and works.

In any case, truckers are required to use the stations less and less because of new “weigh-in-motion” technology. Electronic-sensing devices below the pavement now allow trucks to be weighed in advance of the physical weigh stations.

“If you’re legal, it gives you the green light and you never have to pull in,” Fontenot said. “Companies like Wal-Mart and Saia — they don’t like their drivers waiting in line, because time is money.”

He said only a “small percentage” of trucks are overweight these days and there is usually a Louisiana State Police trooper at the site to follow up.

“Obviously, the scale here is at an important strategic location, as it sits just to the east of I-49 at I-10,” Fontenot said. “But it wasn’t a tremendous disadvantage to the state (to have it shut down). In the end we believe it was a successful project.”