DOTD estimate: Bridge reopens this fall

Work on the La. 182 bridge between Morgan City and Berwick is 80% complete and headed toward completion in the fall, the state Department of Transportation and Development said in a Facebook update.
The 92-year-old, two-lane bridge has been closed since 2023 for a $25.9 million rehabilitation project.
The work is being performed by Southern Road & Bridge LLC of Palm Harbor, Florida. The project includes steel repairs, cleaning, replacing two deck spans and providing a protective texture for the exposed concrete portions of the bridge.
The bridge has also been painted, replacing the familiar rusty reddish brown with a sliver gray surface to match the nearby U.S. 90 bridge, which underwent its own closure for rehabilitation ending in 2022.
“Currently, the contractor has completed the epoxy injection under the main spans and is making corrections to reinforcing steel for the deck truss span on the Morgan City side for an upcoming deck pour,” the DOTD said of the La. 182 bridge.
The bridge is 3,746 feet long and carried an average of 12,928 trips per day, according to the DOTD.
Mt. Vernon Bridge Co. of Mt. Vernon, Ohio, built the bridge, which first carried traffic in 1933.
It served as the major crossing over Berwick Bay until the four-lane E.J. “Lionel” Grizzaffi Bridge opened in 1975.
Morgan City’s La. 182 bridge, formally known as the Long-Allen Bridge, is one of four to have been named for legendary Louisiana Gov. Huey Long and Gov. O.K. Allen.
Long-Allen bridges in Jonesville and Harrisonburg have been demolished since 2009. A fourth Long-Allen Bridge still stands in Shreveport.
The bridge opening is likely to be welcomed for reasons beyond a return to a normal traffic flow.
La. 182 is one of the major hurricane evacuation routes out of low-lying St. Mary Parish and points east.
Also, in the months before the bridge was closed for the rehab work, occasional Saturdays when vehicle traffic was blocked for walkers and bike riders proved to be popular.
The bridge is also envisioned as a link between walking-biking trails in Morgan City and Berwick.