Calcasieu River Bridge

I-10 Calcasieu River Bridge
Carries	I‑10 and US 90
Crosses	Calcasieu River
Locale	Between Lake Charles, Louisiana and Westlake, Louisiana
Other name(s)	I-10 bridge
Maintained by	Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development
ID number	071004509127691
Characteristics
Design	Through truss
Total length	6,605.1 feet (2,013.2 m)
Longest span	420.8 feet (128.3 m)
History
Designer	N.E. Lant
Opened	1952
Statistics
Toll	Free both ways

The Calcasieu River Bridge is a trough truss located on Interstate 10 between Lake Charles, Louisiana and Westlake, Louisiana. It was the only major bridge in Lake Charles, until the construction of the Lake Charles Loop with the I-210 Calcasieu River High Bridge began in 1962, with an average annual daily traffic (2009) of 51,800. The bridge has a vertical clearance of 135 feet (41 m). It was built under the administration of Gov. Earl K. Long and opened in 1952. It has decorative iron work with crossed guns integrated into the railings. The I-10 Bridge was originally built as the U.S. Hwy 90 bridge and later was grandfathered into Interstate 10. The bridge was never intended to be an interstate bridge, and when the federal government took it over, they promised to replace the bridge at a later date.^[1] The bridge has been rated structurally deficient by the Department of Transportation but was declared safe by the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD). There are plans to replace the bridge and improve the Westlake exit.^[2]

History

Construction began in 1949, as part of U.S. Route 90 in Louisiana, and was completed in 1952. The bridge was built before the Interstate Highway System, and included pedestrian walkways that are forbidden on interstate highways, so the bridge is also rated as functionally obsolete.^[3] Before the bridge was built, U.S. 90 traffic crossed the Calcasieu River over a draw bridge located by the Port of Lake Charles on Shell Beach Drive, which runs around the south side of the lake. The remnants of the old bridge can still be seen at the end of Shell Beach Drive by the Port.

Condition

The I-10 bridge has been listed by the National Bridge Inventory (NBI) as Structurally Deficient with a rating of 3 and a Sufficiency Rating of 9.9 out of 100.^[4] Louisiana has 13,361 bridges with 1,722 (12.89%) listed as SD.^[5]

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (La DOTD) initiated a proposed project to replace the bridge in 1999. A feasibility study for the project was completed in 2002 with a projected cost of $450 million.^[6]

Rating

As an indication of the bridge rating, a zero means that a bridge is closed. The rating of 1 is not used. The rating for the Calcasieu River Bridge has dropped significantly from 1992 to 2010. The 1992 report listed the deck condition as poor (4 out of 9), the superstructure condition as fair, with a 5 out of 9, an evaluation of structurally deficient, and a sufficiency rating of 40.9. In 2010, the deck condition was 4 out of 9 (the same), the superstructure condition was rated as serious (3 out of 9), the substructure condition was rated as serious (3 out of 9), and a sufficiency rating of 9.9 was assigned. These ratings evidence is a drastic drop in all but one area. The majority of heavy traffic SD bridges have a sufficiency rating of 50 or better.^[7] The I-35W Mississippi River bridge had a sufficiency rating of 50 in 2005, was listed again as "structurally deficient" and in possible need of replacement, and had ongoing repairs to include overlay, lighting, and guardrails, before falling in August 2007. A contributing factor has been attributed to the extra weight caused by the construction.

Because of the severe substandard rating, the speed limit has been dropped to 50 mph and heavy trucks have been limited to the right lane on the bridge. This actually causes truck traffic to have to contend with merging ramp traffic from both ways, but particularly the east-bound ramp that merges at the foot of the bridge, creating a bottleneck. With the extreme height of the bridge, trucks speeds drop considerably to as low as 20 mph, creating a steady bumper to bumper congested traffic flow across the entire bridge at times, adding a substantial amount of weight on the bridge.

Repairs

In June 2011, the Louisiana DOTD began a $5.7 million repair project (State Proj. No.: H.006783)^[8] on the bridge. Safety and structural repairs included replacing 48 girder pins, and the work was finished by December 22, 2012. Hangers were used for worker safety and precautions were taken to comply with environmental regulations. The existing girder pins were 4-in. (10.2 cm) and were replaced using 4.5-in. (11.4 cm) pins. To facilitate the larger pins, special custom-built drills were used. New 0.875-in. (2.2 cm) A325 structural bolts were used in the pin plate connections. Patrick Bernier, project manager for Topcor Services, LLC, general contractor for the project stated, "The bridge is safe, but it is too narrow according to modern highway standards [ . . . ] And it is too steep on its approaches.”.^[9]

Designer N.E. Lant used 5,286 pairs of crossed decorative cast iron pistols placed on the bridge railing, reportedly in homage to pirate history and legends of Jean LaFitte, and 50 to 60 pairs have been damaged or determined to be missing. As part of the project, these will be replaced, along with damaged parts of the guard rails.^[10][11] The original castings were done by John Lester Boone Foundry Works of Lawtell, Louisiana. Missing/stolen pistols were recast by an Alabama foundry in the late 1980s and again in the 2000s during major overhauls of the bridge. A state official in Scott, Louisiana stated in 1992 to a Boone descendant that so many people would walk up the thin sidewalks of the bridge at night to chip out and take home the crossed pistols as mantel pieces, that the ornaments had to be replaced to prevent the handrails from collapsing.

References

Coordinates: 30°14′14″N 93°14′45″W / 30.2371°N 93.2458°W / 30.2371; -93.2458