Road project to begin construction soon

Donaldsonville Mayor Leroy Sullivan and engineer Glenn Shaheen of Glenn Shaheen and Associates (GSA) are busy working to get the road construction underway in Donaldsonville. Sullivan and Shaheen met in January to discuss the proposed construction plans for Capital Road Improvement Program for the city. As of last Thursday, Shaheen said the bids are out for the contractors who are interested in doing the project and both Shaheen and the city will decide on the most reasonable construction team to fulfill the project of better roads in the city.

“We are looking for the lowest bidder, but also who is the most responsible,” Shaheen said in the meeting with the Mayor in January.

The bids have been advertising forover a month now and Shaheen will receive bidding on Feb. 21 and he said he hopes to award the contract at the Feb. 26 council meeting.

“I pray to God it’s not Coastal Bridge,” Sullivan said about the company he’d prefer not construct the road project. “They didn’t do a good job on the last one.”

Shaheen agreed and said Industrial Enterprise isn’t a bad company and that it is an easy group to work with.

In the meeting, Shaheen explained to Sullivan the areas of road he and his company identified to patch. He said some of the areas are so bad it’s cheaper to go in, stabilize and redo the base and come in and overlay.

“It’s all based on the information the Geotech firm that came in a cored some holes two or three feet deep in each roadway,” Shaheen said. “And we determined what kind of base we had. If we had any kind of base in there and we could patch, we patched it. But if we didn’t have any base and the patches were so substantial, we completely reconstruct the roadways by what we call restabilization, where we pulverize it up and cut in cement and come back in with the asphalt roadway on top.”

This will take places on roads like Oleander. The mayor asked and Shaheen confirmed. Shaheen also said in the residential areas he’s going to make sure limestone is not put on the shoulders of the roads, which will benefit greatly.

“People cut their grass and they cut all the way up to the edge of the pavement, with limestone they will be breaking windows and tearing up stuff,” Shaheen said. “We’re not putting limestone.”

However it will be in the commercial areas and other areas to fill the two-inch gap between road and shoulder.

Street signs will also be put back into place. If streets are missing signs, this project includes replacing the signs and making sure all safety lights are replaced as well, such as the blue reflectors for the fire hydrants.

Sullivan asked about placing the blue reflector on the hydrant itself and Shaheen was unfamiliar with it, but openly said, “we could put them” and that he’ll talk to the fire chief to see what he thinks about it.

“It seems like that would be good too,” Sullivan said. “I notice them more on the hydrant itself.”

The road project also includes raising all the valves in the manholecovers and whateveradjustments need to be made, whether it’s the city’s valve or not. There are water valves, natural gas valves and manhole tops. All will be adjusted by two inches.

The mayor made sure many of the streets were included in this road project, with much of the project including Railroad Avenue improvements and a sidewalk that will extend from Church Street to Wal-Mart.There is a sidewalk in front of Whitney Bank, and the mayor said he’s going to talk to Wendy’s, Walgreen’s and Wal-Mart to see if they will pay for the sidewalk in front of their stores.

“They should it benefits them,” Sullivan said.

On Railroad Avenue, where most tourists visit the city, the asphalt breaks offat the shoulder to the sidewalk. Shaheen said he’s going to fix that.

“It’s going to take us working with the contractors because it varies from block to block. I’m going to try to take three to four inches off. I don’t want that steep break. I want to take it down some. I want it to slope to get the water off of it. But I don’t want it to be too steep,” Shaheen said.

The proposed construction plans for the project can be seen at the City Hall. The plan sheet has over 20 pages that specify which roads will be included in the construction.