L’Observateur / September 13, 2000

LAPLACE – It may not look that way right now, but the extensive work on U.S.Highway 61 through LaPlace is nearly three-quarters completed.

Project engineer Barry Lacy of the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development’s Hammond office said the work is 70 percent complete and is expected to be finished by Thanksgiving.

Lacy said the work involves removing the medians to install a turn lane through the roughly two-mile segment through central LaPlace and improving the shoulders to accommodate the turn lane.

The job, which began July 17, is being carried out by Coastal Bridge at a contract price of $2.965 million. Originally, the work was expected to take200 working days, approximately one calendar year. However, the recent dryspell enabled the crews to move ahead of schedule.

“We’ve had no problems along the way,” Lacy said, “except for this rain.”Wherever businesses were temporarily blocked, the work is being expedited to clear that segment as quickly as possible.

“It’s all just a part of progress,” he said, adding workers are on the job from dawn to dusk, five days a week and sometimes on Saturday.

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