By ROBIN SHANNON
L’Observateur

LAPLACE — A pair of infrastructure improvement jobs tied to the $29.5 million bond issue in St. John Parish are up for a vote Tuesday night at the St. John Council Finance Committee meeting.

Parish officials will seek authorization to execute a contract with Buchart Horn Inc., a Pennsylvania engineering firm with a location in Baton Rouge, to do design work on three intersections along Airline Highway in LaPlace. The improvements include additional lanes, which is expected to relieve traffic constraints on the busy thoroughfare.

St. John Public Information Officer Buddy Boe said the changes to the intersections are recommendations that came out of a 2008 planning and feasibility study on US Highway 61 between Magnolia Street and Old US 51/Main Street conducted by the Regional Planning Commission.

Boe said the contract involves three separate task orders for changes at Belle Terre Boulevard, the Highway 51/Main Street/Louisiana 44 corridor and Hemlock Street. He said $2 million worth of bond issue money is going toward the improvement project.

An overview of the entire project, including diagrams of the intersection improvements, can be found at the parish website at www.sjbparish.com/bondissue.asp.

The council will also vote on a contract with C.J. Savoie Engineers for design work at the Lyons water treatment plant in Reserve, which has not seen improvements since 1997.

Plans include expanding the plant so that it can treat 5 million gallons of water per day instead of its current 3 million gallons. Boe said this expansion would take care of St. John’s East Bank quantity issues for the next 15 to 20 years.

Boe said the parish will allocate $4.1 million from the bond money to upgrade the treatment plant.

The Council meets Tuesday evening at the P.D. Hebert Building in LaPlace starting at 6 p.m.