LA DOTD: Caddo Lake Bridge to be replaced - KSLA News 12 Shreveport, Louisiana News Weather & Sports

The Louisiana Department of Transportation says the Caddo Lake Bridge on La. 1 in Mooringsport will be completely replaced by 2014.

The news comes a day after the bridge was closed to traffic Sunday afternoon after a large chunk of the bridge deck fell into the lake, leaving a hole about  three to four feet in diameter in the roadway. Transportation crews worked through the night to repair the damage, and the bridge was reopened to traffic Monday.

Now the bridge, which was last scheduled for inspection June 19, will be replaced at a cost of $22 million, DOTD says. State and federal funding will go to the reconstruction, DOTD says, and the project has plans to go out to bid in 2014. 

But with good news comes bad news.

"I'm not certain if they would build another bridge, which is something they do in cases like this, or if they would just use detour routes," said Susan Stafford, public information officer for the DOTD.

That could force residents to use a detour for more than a year.

The bridge was shut down on Saturday, after a hole appeared in the decking. The hole was patched up within a matter of hours, but the La DOTD kept the bridge closed until it could be re-inspected and traffic was detoured by way of La 169 and La 538 through Mooringsport.

Stafford says it was the equivalent to a pothole in the road.

"The holes on the deck of this bridge just comes with wear and tear of vehicles on the roadway. This is a bridge that's a little over 70 years old."

Despite its age, Stafford says the bridge is structurally sound. She tells us it was inspected earlier in June, and there was no indication that this problem was weeks away.

"When you have those problems like that, they can just appear overnight," Stafford says.

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