A 10-year-old, $13 million project to repair aging and sometimes cracked pilings that hold up the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway Bridge has entered its last phase.

Pearl River-based Madcon Corp., a corrosion, protection and repair firm, was awarded the $3.29 million low bid Tuesday, about $1 million less than expected, to repair the last 511 pilings out of more than 9,300 supporting the bridge.

“Basically they are in good or if not better condition as when they were installed” more than 50 years ago, Causeway General Manager Robert Lambert said, who added the effort is a proactive measure to secure safety. The upgrade includes wrapping a fiberglass jacket around the pilings about 5 feet above and 5 feet below the water level, said Stephen W. Phillippi, regional president with Mandeville-based consulting firm Krebs, LaSalle, LeMieux Consultants Inc. who is steering the project.

Afterwards, crews inject an epoxy buffer between the jackets and piling that, when dried, makes the steal and concrete beams waterproof, he said.

Waterproofing is important because a constant wet and dry condition accelerates corrosion in the steel cables that anchor and support the pilings, Phillippi said. No such cables were so decrepit it caused safety concerns.

The project is scheduled to take a year and nine months to complete, with crews capable of working, on average, only three days a week because of rough seas or winter temperatures, Phillippi said. By 2010 the project should be complete. The last phase is the fifth since 1996.

In other Causeway news:

— A $1 billion project to build a third Causeway span remains a chief priority for Causeway administrators but won’t likely come to fruition in the near future.

“Since Katrina that’s just not something we should look at,” Lambert said. “I don’t see that moving anytime soon.”

For years Lambert has touted a third lane as a crucial hurricane evacuation tool and key to easing traffic congestion. But federal and state officials don’t seem as interested, and have never allocated the money, Lambert said. He’s even offered to raise the toll to help fund half the construction price tag.

For now Lambert is investigating an interim solution using left over sections of construction on the Twin Span Bridge that connects Slidell to New Orleans East. He wants to use unused pieces to possibly construct another lane at a reduced price, or at the very least, build safety bays with the pieces.

Safety bays would jut out along the sides of the causeway and become a safe place other than crossovers for motorists to veer off and park, he said.

On Tuesday, however, no such project was sanctioned and Lambert had no more information. He said he plans to give an update at the board’s next meeting scheduled for 10 a.m. Nov. 14 at the Commission’s office on Causeway Approach near Lake Pontchartrain in Metairie.

Officials also announced prep work has begun for this year’s fog season, typically during fall and winter months. With a flip of a switch, officials have checked flashing fog warning signs and ordered traffic cones. Often during the peaks season commuters are blanketed by fog rising from Lake Pontchartrain.

Per the Causeway’s procedure, the bridge is closed if visibility is limited to 100 feet. If visibility is limited to 500 feet, Causeway police institute a convoy. That means police officers line up in rows at one end of the bridge and slowly lead traffic across, no more than 100 drivers behind them. When 100 vehicles fall in line, another police officer halts traffic and merges onto the Causeway leading another 100 drivers across. The process continues until the fog has dissipated.

“The public doesn’t realize this, but you’re probably safer in the fog on the Causeway than you are on a bright sunny day,” Lambert said.