The Sunshine Bridge in Donaldsville, built in 1963, is one of eight bridges in Louisiana that the NTSB identified as being at an "unknown level of risk of collapse" if struck by a vessel.
The Sunshine Bridge in St. James Parish will be shut down from Saturday 6 AM until early Monday morning for major repair work on the structure hit by a crane barge back in October. The bridge has been partially open since December. Department of Transportation Spokesperson Rodney Mallet says it’s impressive work.
“We’re taking these 50 foot cross beams, and lifting them up from the river to the bottom of that bridge, where they are going to hook them up to that bridge and put them in place.”
Mallet estimates this will be the last time the bridge is shut off to traffic through the end of scheduled repairs.
Repair efforts and repainting has continued while the bridge has been partially open, but Mallet says this particular bit of restoration is delicate enough that they can’t risk have motorists passing on the bridge while crews lift 50 foot beams below it.
“Oh yea, it’s intricate work, and it goes across, working on all lanes underneath the bridge. So first of all it wouldn’t be safe for the travelers, but it wouldn’t be safe for the workers too.”
Repairs are expected to conclude in late January, early February. Mallet says they were planning on getting it done earlier, but a series of freak weather incidents have kept crews off the bridge.
“We had a couple of times where it was just really windy. It was sunny, it wasn’t rainy, but it was so windy it wasn’t safe for them to get up underneath that bridge.”
