After being closed for over three years, the Highway 11 Bridge connecting the Northshore to New Orleans is tentatively set to reopen by the end of March according to Chris Morvant, District Administrator for the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development.
The nearly five-mile-long Highway 11 Bridge was closed on Jan. 3, 2019, so a contractor can rebuild all of the electrical, mechanical, and structural systems that make the drawbridge function. However, the project has been plagued by delays pushing it back farther away from its original projected contract end date of August 31, 2021.
“It is difficult when you do a rehab project, just like at your home when you rehab your home it takes longer than if you just start from scratch, and that kind of what happens, and these mechanical bridges are notorious for taking a long time,” said Morvant.
He says many of the mechanical parts had to be fabricated and assembled on-site, which Morvant says is still cheaper than building a new bridge.
The latest delay has to do with balancing the bridge with counterweights, says Morvant.
“He ran into some issues, the latest issue was balancing the bridge, and that is the one that is holding us up, trying to get this thing open,” said Morvant.
