Cane River Bridge Church Street Environmental Assessment

• Client

  Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development

• Division

  Engineering

• Completion

  2019

The Cane River Bridge provides a vital transportation connection to the historical commercial downtown areas of Natchitoches west of Cane River Lake and the historical residential areas east of the lake. The 2-lane bridge is over 80 years old and has exceeded its useful service life. This project was needed to study alternatives that would maintain connectivity across the lake for both pedestrians and vehicles, provide a bridge that meets current design guidelines and is not weight-limited for use, and improve traffic function between the bridge and adjacent intersections.

Fenstermaker was selected as the prime consultant, responsible for managing a team of 7 sub-consultants, the planning, public outreach, engineering, and environmental studies. These responsibilities were necessary to gauge public support and document information for LADOTD and FHWA to reach an environmental decision, culminating into a final Environmental Assessment (EA) Report for the proposed replacement of Cane River Bridge. The Selected Alternative proposes replacing the existing Cane River Bridge at Chruch Street on a skewed alignment and installing a temporary detour bridge at Touline Street, to eliminate the offset intersection layout and maintain traffic across the lake throughout the construction process.

The Cane River Bridge Church Street Environmental Assessment project received the Grand Award for the 2021 ACEC of Louisiana Engineering Excellence Awards in the category of Studies, Research and Consulting Engineering.