BROUSSARD, La. (KLFY) – Work began on the Albertson Parkway interchange on U.S. Highway 90 four years ago. The project was supposed to be finished in three years.
DOTD District Administrator Bill Oliver said the project is behind schedule for several reasons.
“Because it’s such a large project there was a lot of subcontractors, a lot of different issues with materials. It’s design-build. There were some design issues,” he said.
Oliver said every design or construction issue affected traffic.
“The project site is very confined so traffic was really a challenge to maintaining traffic through there,” he said.
The interchange is part of the future I-49 South corridor.
It started out as a $57 million project. The price tag has now jumped to $63.7 million.
Besides the interchange, crews are widening Highway 90 to six lanes from Albertson Parkway to just north of Ambassador Caffery Parkway. It includes a new railroad overpass and frontage roads
Crews are putting the finishing touches on the six lane overpass. Traffic from U.S. 90 will eventually be moved onto it. In the spring, the DOTD told us the traffic was supposed to be switched over to the overpass in August. The estimate is now September or October.
Workers are pouring the barrier rails and doing other odds and ends.
“They’ve got to get the rails on, some striping, different things to get that traffic moved over there, you have to get your safety devices in place,” said Oliver.
The DOTD expects the Albertson Parkway interchange project to be finished in early 2019.
The DOTD said the contractor will be fined when the project is finished. But they will take into account bad weather days and other lost work days beyond the contractor’s control.