As part of the Construction Joint Venture within Plenary Infrastructure Belle Chasse (PIBC), Traylor/Massman JV is the design-build joint venture for the Belle Chasse Bridge & Tunnel Replacement Public-Private Partnership Project for the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development. Belle Chasse Highway (LA 23) is approximately 1.4 miles long, consisting of four lanes with a movable bridge and tunnel. The PIBC team will provide financing, design-build construction, tolling, and long-term operations and maintenance for the three-span continuous steel plate girder main span bridge replacement. Traylor is in the lead at the DBJV level.
The project will meet the challenges of transportation demand as identified in the Louisiana Statewide Transportation Plan and the Metropolitan Transportation Plan, New Orleans Urbanized Area, while complimenting modal interrelationships between traffic on LA 23 and maritime access in the GIWW. Specific improvements will include replacement of the existing Belle Chasse Tunnel and vertical-lift Judge Perez Bridge crossing the GIWW with a new mid-rise fixed span four-lane bridge and ancillary connector roadways. The GIWW is an inland commercial waterway that connects established maritime-dependent businesses in the project area with a broad local, regional, national, and international clientele via the numerous commercial port facilities oriented to the waterway as well as along the Mississippi River and Gulf of Mexico. Maintenance of marine traffic during construction and operation of the project is as vital to the State of Louisiana as the maintenance of vehicular traffic across the GIWW.
The project involves the design and construction of an aesthetically pleasing four-lane fixed span bridge over the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway (GIWW); removal of the LA 23 Judge Perez Bridge over the GIWW; decommissioning of the LA 23 Belle Chasse Tunnel beneath the GIWW; operation and maintenance of the Judge Perez Bridge and Belle Chasse Tunnel during construction; operations and maintenance of the new LA 23 project corridor; and development and operation of a new toll revenue collection system.