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Aerial of the Horace Wilkinson Bridge servicing Interstate 10 as it crosses the Mississippi River, seen Friday, September 13, 2024, in Baton Rouge, La. Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save The earliest a highly anticipated new Mississippi River bridge could be constructed and open for traffic is now 2033, two years later than the original estimate suggested by agencies leading the project. At a meeting of the Capital Area Road and Bridge District Monday, city and state officials attempted to put in simple terms what work has been done on the long-awaited, multibillion-dollar bridge project , which is expected to ease traffic in Baton Rouge and the West Mississippi bank, as well as deliver an economic boost to Plaquemine and Iberville Parish.
They landed on the duck metaphor. Like waterfowl, the project appears smooth and still to the observer, but is paddling like crazy beneath the surface. “It is, like you said, a duck paddling in the water,” a representative from the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development told the chair of the bridge district, J.
H. Campbell Jr. “Because it doesn’t happen overnight, especially once you get into the fieldwork portion of the project.
” If constructed, the bridge would become the third place to cross the Mississippi in Baton Rouge, in addition the Horace Wilkinson Bridge and the Huey P. Long Bridge. Over the past year, the DOTD employees said at the meeting, they have drilled and tested the soil for what’s called a geotechnical investigation, completed a topographic survey and performed a subsurface utility engineering analysis to reduce the risk of damaging utility infrastructure during construction.
Still, the project is slow going. The timeline gets extended as DOTD discovers additional studies that need to be ordered, such as a hydraulic study of the river, DOTD spokesperson Rodney Mallet wrote in an email. These steps are important prior to a formal review under the National Environmental Policy Act, he added.
“By finding these issues in the pre-NEPA process, it helps to ensure the actual NEPA process (1-year timeframe) runs smoother and can actually save time in the long run,” Mallet wrote. Protest from Iberville residents Beyond bureaucratic hurdles, the project has also met with resistance from a community in Iberville Parish. One of three final potential bridge locations, referred to as E-11-IV, would run through Plaquemine Point, which contains the A.
E. LeBlanc Natural Area and Old-Growth Cypress Forest. Area landowners have protested DOTD acquiring the land via eminent domain and bisecting the forest.
They allege that DOTD is also neglecting its duty to complete an Environmental Impact Statement, necessitated when significant environmental effects of a project are discovered, and is instead following a less rigorous course called an Environmental Assessment. “These cypress trees have so much more potential to live out their lives, and they’re already so much older than all of us,” Laura Comeaux, whose family has led the opposition to E-11-IV, said. “That’s really one of my family’s prime concerns, but habitat among them, too.
” Currently, NEPA initiation is scheduled for April 25, with completion of the environmental review process expected in spring of fiscal year 2026. Comeaux said that plan does not leave adequate time to incorporate public comment. In response to criticism at public meetings, project leaders have said that none of the options are free from potentially negative effects.
“I think common sense tells you that there will be different impacts to different individuals from all of the alternatives,” DOTD secretary Joe Donahue said Monday..
