Luling Bridge

Luling Bridge
Official name	Hale Boggs Memorial Bridge
Carries	4 lanes of Interstate 310
Crosses	Mississippi River
Locale	Luling, Louisiana and Destrehan, Louisiana
Maintained by	LaDOTD
ID number	024504503700001
Design	Cable-stayed bridge
Total length	10,700 feet (3,261 m)
Width	76 feet (23 m)
Longest span	1,234 feet (376 m)
Clearance below	158 feet (48 m)
Opened	October 6, 1983
Daily traffic	40,000 (2008)
Coordinates	29°56′33″N 90°22′25″W

The Luling Bridge (also known as the Hale Boggs Memorial Bridge) is a cable-stayed bridge over the Mississippi River in St. Charles Parish, Louisiana. It is named for the late United States Congressman Hale Boggs. The bridge was dedicated by Governor David C. Treen and Bishop Stanley Ott of Baton Rouge and opened to traffic on October 8, 1983 connecting Louisiana Highway 18 on the West Bank and Louisiana Highway 48 on the East Bank. The Luling Bridge was the third major cable-stayed bridge in the United States after the 1,255-foot John O'Connell Bridge of Sitka, Alaska (the United States' first vehicular cable-stayed girder spanned bridge) and the Pasco-Kennewick Bridge or Ed Hendler Bridge in Washington.

In 1993 the Luling Bridge was incorporated into the newly completed Interstate 310 and was the first cable-stayed bridge to be added to the interstate highway system. Upon completion of Interstate 49, I-310 and the Luling Bridge will serve as a connection between I-49 and Interstate 10 on the western edge of metropolitan New Orleans.

Design

The Luling Bridge's design features an unpainted weathering steel towers and superstructure, an orthotropic steel box girder superstructure, and two planes of cables in a fan pattern. Weathering steel exhibits uniform oxidation or "rusting" that results in a uniform protective patina and reduces maintenance requirements. The bridge's weathered bronze color is intended to blend with the muddy waters of the Mississippi River.

The prefabricated cables featured a heavy polyethylene sheathing that began cracking even before installation, leading to moisture intrusion and cable deterioration. There were additional problems with rust and water leakage in the anchorages [1]. A project to replace the cables began in summer 2009.

George Prince tragedy

The bridge was under construction on October 20, 1976 when the ferry George Prince was struck by a tanker while crossing the river from Destrehan to Luling, the same communities connected by this bridge. Seventy-eight people perished when the ferry capsized; only eighteen survived.

See also

• List of crossings of the Lower Mississippi River

References

• Weeks III, John A. "I-310 Hale Boggs Memorial Bridge, New Orleans, LA" [sic]. http://www.johnweeks.com/lower_mississippi/pages/lmiss15.html. Retrieved January 30, 2006.
• Kurumi.com. "Interstate 310" [2]. November 26, 2003. Retrieved January 30, 2006.

• Podolny, W. Jr., and Scalzi, J. B., Construction & Design of Cable-Stayed Bridges, John Wiley & Son , New York, NY, 1976.

• Cable-Stayed Bridges: Theory and Design (ISBN 0258970340 / 0-258-97034-0) Troitsky, M S

• ASCE, Bridge (discusses the Luling Bridge), Civil Engineering, ASCE American Society of Civil Engineers, 31, July 1984.

• ENR, Stayed -Girders Reaches Record (discusses the Luling Bridge), Engineering News Record, McGraw Hill, New York, NY, April 8, 1982,

• Mangus, Alfred, “A Fresh Look at Orthotropic Technology,” Public Roads, , The US Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration, www.tfhrc.gov March / April 2005, Washington, D.C., pp. 38–45.

• Troitsky, M. S., Orthotropic Bridges — Theory and Design, 2nd ed., The James F. Lincoln Arc Welding Foundation, Cleveland, OH, 1987.