St. Landry Parish President Bill Fontenot defended the quality of road in the parish that have been paved in the Smooth Ride Home program.
About 320 miles of roads have been paved and 98 percent are impacted enough by cracks to require sealing, he said at a St. Landry Parish Council Public Works Committee meeting Tuesday.
“That is outstanding work. We use the state specs. We use the state standards for inspections. So, with all the discussion in the last meeting, I think it created some confusion and some news that seems to give people the feeling that our roads are coming apart, which is definitely inaccurate,” Fontenot said.
Parish Government is planning to spend about $47,000 to seal cracks under the Smooth Ride Home program.
The roads included in the program are Cherry, Duplechin, Desiree, WPA, Jennings, Daniel Meche, Riverbirch, Sumner, Rayne, Jules Lagrange, Koch, Seven Arpents, Schexnayder, Veazie, Bayou Jack and Miller.
“We do have a one year warranty, but it doesn’t cover cracks. It covers deficiencies...” Fontenot said.
“So, right now our roads are in good condition but we are crack sealing, but that is just routine business, he said.
Engineers have told him contractors cannot give a warranty against crack.
“All roads new have cracks,” he said.
“You just don’t want any failures. Failures would be a displacement of crack. The crack would open up and one side of the crack would go down some. You would say that is subsidence failure,” he said. “So that would have to be repaired within a year.”
Council members asked legal counsel Garret Duplechain about placing a warranty on roads.
Duplechain said he spoke to parish engineer William Jarrell who said contractors warranty their work for a year and also put up a bond to cover the costs. The warranty never covers cracks, he said.
“All roads are going to crack sooner or later,” Duplechain said.
Fontenot said bids on the next phase of the Smooth Ride Home program are to be opened July 23. Up to 15 miles of road are to be paved.
Also at the Public Works Committee meeting:
— Duplechain reported that all owners of a private road would have to approve it being taken over by the parish.
The legal counsel was asked by Council member Wayne Ardoin to research how the parish can help residents living on private roads that nearly impassable.
If the road is owned by one person, only that person would have to consent, he said.
“Some of them in such a condition that they are threat to the health and safety of citizens driving down the roads,” he said.
“If you look at the condition of some of the roads it would be hard to imagine why someone would not want the parish to take it and fix it,” he said.
— Duplechain said the parish does not have a permitting process for group homes. He was asked by Council member Harold Taylor to look into how other parishes handle the issue.
— At the request of Ardoin, the Council will revisit a burn ban ordinance it passed in June.
“I’ve been getting a lot of phone calls ... people are questioning this situation,” he said.
