Sigh of relieve

Shreveport's Southern Loop Interchange completed after 10 years of waiting

By Martin Schwartz

When officials removed the barricades allowing the first motorists to use the new exit 196 off of Interstate 49, a palpable sigh of relief went up from the southside Shreveport residents who call the area home.

Created to remove some of the congestion on area roads, the I-49 Southern Loop Interchange has been in the planning stages for 10 years.

Its opening in March ended a year of construction that also included some rebuilding of the interstate.

"That is the fastest growing area in town, so it was definitely needed," said Joey Earnest, who managed the project for Best Yet Builders LLC of Shreveport. "The day we opened it up we did it without any kind of announcement or advertisement. And here they come."

What Earnest called a "cut and dry" job began in February 2004. The project included the addition of two on ramps and two off ramps, the building of a bridge to pass over the highway, and approximately 1.5 mi. of interstate, both north- and southbound lanes.

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Clearing went quickly, with no utilities to relocate and very little along the roadside to provide an obstacle to the construction.

"That was the nice thing about it," Earnest said. "There wasn't anything to get in the way."

The crew ran into its first real difficulty during the excavation and placement >> of about 400,000 cu. yds. of dirt.

"We started moving dirt by mid-March and we were through by October," Earnest said. "We would have been finished earlier, but it rained 17 days in June."

Wet weather would again cause problems in November, and Earnest considered both months lost.

"Of course a month in June is worth two months in the wintertime, if not more," he added.

Earnest said the job was originally scheduled as a 300-day calendar day job, meaning Saturdays and Sundays were figured into the timetable. Unfortunately, he said, such a schedule doesn't allow for the weather. By working every Saturday and several Sundays - and with considerable cooperation from the highway department - the crew was able to make up a lot of lost time, finishing two weeks behind its scheduled date.

In addition to creating access to I-49, a large part of the Southern Loop Interchange project consisted of removing stretches of I-49 and replacing it with a more durable roadway.

"That part of the interstate was buckling and moving real bad," Earnest said.

After removing the old concrete from the roadway, the crew excavated down another 2 ft. and began layering the substructure. About 1 ft. of select material cut with lime was processed on the bottom layer followed by 1 ft. of select material on top of that and another 1-ft. layer of select material cut with concrete.

The contractor then placed 1 ft. of limestone and an 11 in. asphalt driving surface.

The entrances and exits were all constructed of asphalt. Upon completion, more than 62,000 metric tons of asphalt were placed.

The bridge over the interstate was constructed on a foundation of 14- and 24-in. piles and 42-in.-diameter columns. Earnest said the bridge had four bents with four columns on each bent and nine piles per column.

The plans originally called for drill shafts, but that was changed shortly >> after Best Yet Builders received the job, Earnest said.

"I don't know why (the plans) had drill shafts, because it was up on top of a hill in the middle of North Louisiana," he added. "I think the people in Baton Rouge sometimes design them for south Louisiana and then the local people change them as they come in. It saved the state a considerable amount of money and it fit our company better, so we definitely agreed to it."

Now complete, the Southern Loop Interchange connects to an existing roadway that ties the interchange to Wallace Lake Road west of I-49. Another connecting road is planned to connect the new interchange to Linwood Avenue to the east but construction has been delayed as the city negotiates for access through area wetlands, Earnest said.

"I know the people over there on the Linwood side think they got shafted because the people with the money live over on the other side, but that really wasn't it," he added. "(The city) has been trying to get it through."

Earnest said Best Yet Builders planned to bid on the projects as soon as it came available.

Though he feels the job was routine - except for the weather - Earnest said there are some new routines that make projects like this a little more difficult than they used to be.

"This was a DOTD job, but they had a consultant who did the plans and that's one thing I wish the highway department would change," he said. "It's just somebody else to go between. If they draw their own plans and there's a problem when it gets to the local people, we've got the man's name right there who works for the highway department. I can call him and say, 'Look, we need to do this,' or 'It just doesn't work,' or whatever. It's not that big of a deal.

"But when it's a consultant, they don't work there. They've already been paid and gone home."

The $13 million Southern Loop Interchange project is the first step in a proposed Southern Loop that has yet to be scheduled pending the resolution of funding issues.

Useful Source:

For current road projects in the Shreveport area, go to:
http://www.dotd.state.la.us/construction/shreveport.html