MoreA professional land surveyor says the engineers who designed the four-laning of U.S. 425 in Lousiana are apparently using a wrong formula in determining that their work won't exacerbate flooding during high-water years like 1991 and 1958.
By Johnny Gunter • jgunter@thenewsstar.com • November 16, 2008
A professional land surveyor says the engineers who designed the four-laning of U.S. 425 in Morehouse Parish are apparently using a wrong formula in determining that their work won't exacerbate flooding during high water years like 1991 and 1958.
"In those two years, I saw personally what the water did from Bayou Bartholomew," said Frank Messinger, a professional land surveyor who has an office in Bastrop. Messinger's residence is on the bank of Bayou Bartholomew.
Messinger had previously notified the state Department of Transportation and Development, which in turn notified the Louisiana TIMED Managers program engineers who designed the project.
An engineer from TIMED, a company hired by the state to oversee its Transportation Infra-structure Model For Economic Development program, visited with Messinger about his concerns that high water situations would flood the Mer Rouge and Collinston areas and possibly even the Monroe area.
Messinger recently received a letter from Jack N. Hodges, the design segment engineer with TIMED Managers, stating there will be no changes "to the roadway grades as designed and under contract for construction."
Messinger this week mailed a letter to Gov. Bobby Jindal, asking him to intervene and to make sure the engineers' calculations are correct.
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