Case Study: Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (LaDOTD) achieves rapid, cost-effective replacement of the I-10 Twin Span Bridge with Bentley

Louisiana DOTD Designs and Builds New I-10 Twin Span Bridge in a Challenging Environment

The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (LaDOTD) was tasked with replacing the heavily damaged I-10 Twin Span Bridge after Hurricane Katrina, a 5.5‑mile crossing critical for evacuation, commerce, and regional connectivity. Facing severe structural losses, intense competition for resources, and an aggressive schedule to design, permit, and produce over 1,700 plan sheets, LaDOTD turned to Bentley tools such as MicroStation, InRoads, STAAD, LEAP CONSPAN, LEAP RC-PIER, and ProjectWise to accelerate design and coordination.

Bentley implemented an integrated design and collaboration environment—using MicroStation for visualization, ProjectWise for data management and team integration, and Bentley analysis tools for structural and substructure design—enabling rapid, reusable workflows and secure data handling. The result: the $750M project was completed ahead of schedule and US $53 million under budget, opened both new spans in September 2011, produced over 1,700 plan sheets for long‑term operations, and returned roughly 12% of the original $803M allocation to the hurricane relief fund.

Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (LaDOTD)

Arthur W. D’Andrea

Bridge Engineer Administrator