Were switching over to a new website. Some of the links we posted earlier today are not working. Thanks for your patience! Heres one in its entirety: First phase of U.S. 171/Leesville revamp to be bid out soon; work on track for May BY ELONA WESTON LEESVILLE -- The first phase of the project that will revamp a busy section of U.S. 171 in Leesville will be bid out in coming weeks. Deidra Druilhet, public information officer for the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development, said the project is estimated to be bid out for construction on Feb. 25, with work estimated to start in May. The estimated cost of the work is $1 million-$2.5 million. The project, in all, is expected to take eight months to complete. Rehabilitation and some overlaying of lanes are slated. The work will be from the traffic circle at Market Basket to Boone Street at the south end of town. A small turning lane will be added from existing roadway from the current location of Circle K to Boone Street, officials said. Leesville Mayor Rick Allen, in October, explained the work to the West Central News Center. From Circle Ks current location, to AGS Glass, they (DOTD) will be removing the asphalt there and doing some patchwork and then theyll come back and overlay it. When they overlay it, they are going to stripe it out to be five lanes. Right now, people dont notice it, but one of the lanes is actually 10-foot-9, and one of the other lanes is 9-foot-6, so the lanes that are there have more room than they need, Allen said. What DOTD intends on doing is coming in and overlaying the street and when they stripe it back, they are going to stripe it back five lanes. The room is there and people are going to think that those lanes are going to be very narrow, but the only lane that will be very narrow is the turning lane. It will have enough room for the cars to get by. DOTD knows what they are doing and they have done this study, and it will work. Rep. James K. Armes, D-Leesville, last week, said according to officials, workers will be on the project around-the-clock. They will take out the concrete out from underneath it thats bad -- its asphalt over concrete. They will fix all of the failures in the concrete and will redo all of the catch basins where they are level in the road. The manholes in the middle will be redone, of course, those are the citys, Armes said. Officials have said there will be a different traffic configuration once the work begins. Allen warned that traffic will be horrific. --end--
Posted on: Tue, 13 Jan 2015 23:39:13 +0000
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