BATON ROUGE, La. – The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development marked the completion of the four-laning of a section of La. 28 in Vernon Parish with a ribbon-cutting ceremony Wednesday, Nov. 30.
“Since La. 28 is a vital link between Fort Polk and Alexandria, the completion of this project is a significant accomplishment,” said Cedric Grant, deputy secretary of DOTD. “It shows that Louisiana is doing its part to keep Fort Polk alive.”
The project involved widening 7.63 miles of roadway on La. 28, from its intersection with La. 8 to the intersection of La. 121. The scope of the project was to add to two travel lanes and a median to the existing two-lane roadway, creating a four-lane divided highway. The existing pavement also was replaced.
This project is the second project of six to be completed along the La. 8/La. 28 corridor between U.S. 171 in Vernon Parish and Bayou Boeuf in Rapides Parish. More than 40 miles will be widened in the complete project; currently, it is 30 percent complete.
State Rep. John R. Smith served as master of ceremonies for the event, which took place on the unopened lanes of La. 28 near Wise Burn Road in Leesville.
In addition to Smith, remarks were given by Grant and Col. Rodney K. Alston, deputy commander of the Joint Readiness and Training Center and Fort Polk.
Gilchrist Construction Co. was the contractor on the project, and Meyer, Meyer, LaCroix and Hixson Inc. was the project’s designer. The DOTD project engineer was Matthew Ziecker. The $22.3 million project was let for construction in April 2002.
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