ARNAUDVILLE, La. (KLFY) – Crews are working on Lucien Richard Road in the Arnaudville/Leonville area this week. It’s one of the roads being rebuilt in the third phase of St. Landry Parish’s “Smooth Ride Home” program.

A large pulverizing machine tears up the existing road. Metal teeth underneath the vehicle grind it up into a powder.

“Then that’s placed out there raw onto the road bed and then some tillers, big large tilling machines, pulverizers will come in and plow it to a certain depth,” explained St. Landry Parish President Bill Fontenot.

Compacting rollers are used to compact it into a finer material. Water is then sprayed onto the road. Fontenot said cement will be added to the mix in a few weeks to complete the foundation. The road will then cure for a few days before the new asphalt is poured.

Seven Arpents Road has also been pulverized in the past week. Parish crews test the roads to determine which ones need to be pulverized.

“Some roads are in a condition where we can just patch it, take the bad parts out, fill it with asphalt and then we will basically take that patched road and overlay it,” Fontenot said.

Pulverizing a road costs more, but Fontenot said it provides a strong foundation for the asphalt.

“Usually it’s, our experience, $100,000 a mile if you don’t have to pulverize but if you go to pulverizing it’s $200,000 a mile,” Fontenot said.

The parish plans to rebuild 35 miles of roads over the next year for about $8 million. The money comes from a two-cent sales tax in rural St. Landry Parish designated for roads, bridges, and drainage projects.

Fontenot said they’re currently rebuilding roads in the southern part of the parish.

The work will then shift to the northern part… including Morrow, Whiteville, Palmetto, and Melville.