Widening the Huey P. Long Bridge

This article offers a detailed look at a project designed to widen and structurally improve the Huey P. Long Bridge, a combined railroad/highway cantilevered steel-truss bridge over the Mississippi River in Louisiana. The major engineering challenge of the project involves widening the structure by changing the existing single-cell truss into a triple-cell truss while making no changes to the foundations. In addition to fitting the new trusses onto the old truss, the project involves expanding two existing 9-foot-wide travel lanes of U.S. 90 to three 11-foot lanes in each direction, and building new east and west bank approaches to the main bridge. All of this is to be done while the bridge is under traffic, under load, and crews are working more than 150 feet above the Mississippi River. The article also includes a sidebar on the Transportation Infrastructure Model for Economic Development (TIMED) Program, a $4.6-billion program in which investment in transportation projects is designed to enhance economic development in Louisiana. The Huey P. Long Bridge widening project is one of the three major bridge projects included in the TIMED Program. The sidebar discusses the history, financing, and current status of component projects for the TIMED Program.