Engineers address cracks in newly paved roads

Additional work by specialized contractors is anticipated to address the worst of the cracks in some newly paved roads in St. Landry Parish, engineers said recently.
The road contractor has done everything in accordance with engineering doctrine and specifications, Karl Aucoin, of Aucoin and Associates, said at Parish Council meeting on Feb. 17.
“I certainly have concerns about it,” Aucoin said of cracks that have developed on some newly paved roads.
Aucoin and William Jarrell, of Morgan Goudeau and Associates, spoke at the Parish Council meeting about the parish’s road-paving program.
There are some areas of the parish where even with extensive soil preparation, cracks in the roads develop, he said.
But trees get the blame for most of the cracks.
“These cracks occur where there are trees on the edge of the road,” Aucoin said.
Engineering for the road projects is split between Aucoin and Goudeau companies.
In a report on the paving progress, Jarrell said 66 miles of road paving at a cost of $12.96 million has been completed; and in a second phase, 85 percent of 45 miles has been completed in a project to cost $9.9 million.
In the project’s under Aucoin’s supervision, 28 roads, 52 miles, have been completed at cost of $13.3 million. A second phase is to cost $9.3 million and is 80 percent complete with nine roads and 41 miles to be done.
Parish President Bill Fontenot said drainage issues on the roads will be addressed.
And, Jarrell said contractors are working to blend driveways into the newly paved roads.
Fontenot said $66 million was borrowed initially to pave roads in the first three years of the 15-year program. About $7 million is received from a 2 percent tax collected in rural St. Landry Parish. The annual bond payment is about $5.5 million, he said.
The result is the parish will have about $90 million over the 15 years to spend on paving roads, he said.
If the parish voters renew program, the parish will end up with a road program superior to that of the the state and federal governments.
“We are getting a first-rate job here in St. Landry Parish,” he said.
With the amount of roads paved, cracks are bound to occur, he said.
“In any construction, as you will learn, cracks go with construction like ham goes with eggs,” Fontenot said.
But Fontenot said the paving contractors do not have an abnormal amount of cracking in the roads.