A lack of available funds for one project and a lack of parts for another have forced the Board of Mayor and Aldermen to extend emergency declarations for repairs to the Kemp Bottom Road bridge and a clarifier at the city’s water treatment plant on Haining Road.
The city declared an emergency for the Kemp Bottom Road bridge in July after Entergy, which operates the Baxter Wilson power plant at the end of Kemp Bottom Road off Warrenton Road, reported an erosion problem at the bridge. Kemp Bottom Road, is the only paved access to the plant.
According to the report, part of the west bank of Hatcher Bayou under the bridge on Kemp Bottom Road is sliding into the channel, threatening it and damaging an adjacent railroad trestle. Further inspection from Stantec showed a huge slide had taken out the railroad trestle and was compromising the bridge.
Public works director Garnet Van Norman said plans for the project include repairing the erosion on the bank, and repairs to the pilings and support cap the bridge sits on that have been moved by the erosion.
But money for the bridge repair is not in the city’s fiscal 2017 budget, and Van Norman said the city is looking for funding to pay for the estimated $1.2 million repair project.
“We’ve put in for a grant from Entergy; hopefully, that will go, and when they (city officials) go to Washington, they’re going to try and get some money. We’re just really trying to find some money to do the work with.”
The damaged clarifier is one of two at the water treatment plant installed in 1968 and used to soften the water during the treatment process by mixing in lime.
The board learned in January the rake system used to remove the lime that sinks to the bottom of the clarifier broke and needs to be repaired.
The board declared an emergency and amended its contract with Greenbrier Digging Services of Brookhaven, which recently completed repairs to the plant’s other clarifier, to make the repairs.
Van Norman said the cost of the repair is $192,500, adding the part had to be made by the manufacturer of the rake system.
He said Wednesday the parts for the new system are being delivered.
He said the clarifier has been shut down since the part broke, but was available for emergencies.