The Hale Boggs Memorial Bridge is the latest infrastructure project to show the value composites provide in revitalization and repair. While most southern political leaders led the massive resistance to the civil rights movement, Boggs traveled throughout the South urging whites and blacks to work together peaceably toward abolishing racial segregation and prejudices. “The combination of specialized composite materials and resins make concrete surfaces on suspension bridges possible.” From 1941 to 1943, and again from 1947 to 1972, Congressman Hale Boggs represented Louisianas Second Congressional District.
“Bridges constantly move, especially suspension bridges, so a typical concrete and steel reinforced surface does not do well by itself and will eventually end up cracking,” explained Vectorply’s South/Central Region Sales Manager Doug Lachapelle. For this tall task, Huval developed a composite system utilizing Vectorply’s Kevlar/E-glass hybrid material and a highly adhesive and flexible epoxy resin. The Luling Bridge is a 10,699-foot-long suspension bridge that presented Huval and Associates with the difficult task of developing a flexible composite structure that would adhere to the steel plate on the bridge as well as the concrete that would be poured for the roadway. With the bridge in need of surface repairs, the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development turned to Engineering Consultant Malcolm Huval of Huval and Associates to find a solution that provided the most longevity.
Boggs, then House Majority Leader, was flying from Anchorage to. Destrehan, LA – Spanning the Mississippi River to connect Destrehan on the east bank to Luling on the west bank, the Hale Boggs Memorial Bridge (also known as the Luling Bridge) is one of the state of Louisiana’s most crucial pieces of infrastructure. House of Representatives from 1941-72, an unsuccessful candidate for Governor of Louisiana in 1952, and a member of the Warren Commission, which investigated President Kennedys assassination.