(The Associated Press circulated the following article by Michael Kunzelman on January 27.)
BAY ST. LOUIS, Miss. — Efforts to restore bridges washed out by Hurricane Katrina is “nothing short of impressive,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta said today after a boat and rail tour along the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
The Aug. 29 hurricane destroyed thousands of homes and businesses and left roads, bridges and rail lines in tatters. On Mississippi’s west coast, Katrina took out the U.S. 90 Bay St. Louis bridge and heavily damaged the CSX railroad bridge, a link for shipping goods between New Orleans and Mobile.
Mineta, who surveyed the bridges aboard a Coast Guard vessel and by CSX train, said the rail bridge over the bay would reopen early next month.
“Given the work that we’ve done so far, I know that we are on the right course,” he said.
Meanwhile, Granite Archer Western, AJV, of Watsonville, Calif., has been awarded a $266.8 million contract to build a highway bridge over the Bay of St. Louis.
Mineta said two lanes of the bridge should be open by May 2007, with the span fully operational about six months later.
“I know that when bridges and highways are closed, any time spent waiting for repairs feels like forever,” he said. “Considering the severity of the damage from these storms, it is clear that a lot of incredible work is being done to erase the doubt and the impact of the hurricane on our transportation network.”
Mineta was joined on the inspection trip by U.S. Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Miss., Mississippi Transportation Commissioner Wayne Brown and others.
Taylor said he was impressed with what CSX has done to restore its bridge and hoped the effort would serve as a model for other hurricane repairs.
Taylor, whose home in Bay St. Louis was destroyed by the storm, said he has not been satisfied with the pace of other reconstruction projects.
“I’m an impatient person but we want to make sure we do it right,” he said.
J. Richard Capka, acting administrator for the Federal Highway Administration, said the government was reviewing the bids for the bridge projects, a process Mineta said should be completed in a few days.
Capka said the cost replacing the bridge at Bay St. Louis and the estimate of $274 million for the bridge between Biloxi and Ocean Springs were higher than initially thought.
“But that was very early on before we had a good assessment of how the construction community was going to respond.,” he said.