I-10/I-610 Interchange

Contractor: Boh Bros. Construction, New Orleans
Location: New Orleans
Cost: $28.8 million
Project manager: Al Flettrich & Ed Foss
Jobsite superintendent: Nelson Ardoin
Engineer: Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development, Baton Rouge

The I-10/I-610 "split" is Louisiana's most heavily traveled roadway, with more than 160,000 cars making the five-mile drive from downtown New Orleans to Metairie every day. The bottleneck caused by the merger of the two interstates made this brief journey a 40-minute commute at rush hour.

Boh Bros. began this five-phase project in January 1998 with the widening of I-610 eastbound and the construction of a massive new bridge at the 17th Street Canal. Phases Two and Three involved widening I-10 westbound, including completion of the bridge work, as well as widening of westbound I-610. The completion of eastbound interstate widening was included in Phase Four, while Phase Five included the finishing touches - milling and overlay of asphalt, re-striping, canal dredging, demolition and cleanup.

Bridgework was a critical part of each of the four phases of the project. Because of the importance of the interstates as an evacuation route, engineers designed the new canal crossings to withstand hurricanes and flood waters up to the top of the barrier rail. To make the bridges waterproof, the deck and guardrails were poured in a single seamless unit so that traffic could continue to flow even if water were as high as the barrier rail.

The largest pour, in Phase Four, was poured in January 2000 and was so large that it required concrete supplier Carlo Ditta's entire fleet of 38 trucks and all three of its state-approved concrete plants.

Boh personnel closed eastbound I-610 in order to keep the concrete coming, as the crews needed it. As it turned out, that particular night was the coldest night of the year and project personnel watched the weather closely to ensure the integrity of the pour.