Construction and Closure of Lafayette, Louisiana Bridge Now Pushed Back Seven Months

You may recall earlier in the week Lafayette Consolidated Government announced that they would be closing the Lajaunie Road Bridge in Lafayette to make structural repairs.

Well, scratch that for now, because the powers that be have decided to back that up a few months.

According to a press release sent out on Tuesday, LCG said the project will be delayed for approximately seven months.

The bridge on Lajaunie Road between Maryview Farm Road and E. Gloria Switch Road was to close beginning on April 17, 2024, but that date has been pushed back to January 1, 2025.

The original announcement was not taken too kindly by several residents in the area. The main issue seemed to be the fact that there is already a portion of E. Gloria Switch Road nearby that is under construction and will be for several more months.

Residents didn't like the timing of the potential Lajaunie Road closure as well, citing issues with getting emergency services should they be needed as one of the issues.

What's interesting is what Lafayette Consolidated Government District 1 Parish Councilman Bryan Tabor had to say in a Facebook post on Monday.

The explanation he received from LCG seems to be a bit concerning.

As you can see in the post above, Tabor said he was unaware that this closure was happening and contacted Public Works. The response he received back was the following:

While we understand the issues the closure of Lajaunie Bridge will cause, we are not able to delay the bridge closure for 9 months. The current deterioration of the structural members of the bridge would not allow us to hold of closing it.

Hopefully, seven more months of usage of the bridge does not deteriorate it to a point where it becomes impassable or worse, causes it to become deficient while vehicles are on it.

For reference, the map below was posted earlier this week by LCG and it shows where the closures and construction would be along with detour routes.

(Click on the map below to enlarge.)