(The Center Square) — The Louisiana Department of Transportation met with the Joint Transportation Committee Wednesday to open the floor for discussion on priority projects in fiscal year 2024-2025.
One important plan was not in their report: the Mississippi River Bridge project.
The objective of the project is to build a new bridge or multiple bridges from State Route 1 in Plaquemine to State Route 30 in St. Gabriel across the Mississippi River to ease traffic in the Greater Baton Rouge area.
The reason it wasn’t in the packet is because it’s separate funding from the rest of the projects, however Iberville Parish President Chris Daigle thinks they should have more information on its progress.
“It should be in these documents,” Daigle said in regards to the new bridge project.
Although the original plan suspected the project wouldn’t be finished until 2031, Daigle also expressed concern that funding would continue to be pulled from the project and it would further delay it’s completion.
“I would strongly object having to take any of these fundings away and changing any of the statute because what you’re gonna do is delay a project that has already been delayed for over 30 years,” Daigle said. “Baton Rouge region needs this bridge to happen.”
Daigle stated that $200 million of the original $500 million allocated has already been pulled from the project, leaving $300 million in the wings.
Because the project is projected to cost $1.2 billion, DOTD Secretary Joe Donahue says the funding isn’t there to move forward, but Daigle suggested they go ahead and start with the $300 million and find those other sources of funding over the next seven years.
There are plenty of East Baton Rouge projects that have made it to the letting process for next fiscal year, which means they are awarding contracts on the projects and in the stage right before construction.
These include bike and pedestrian construction near U.S. 61, installing drainage structures on State Route 410, and most importantly, widening State Route 30 or Nicholson Drive to four lanes with medians.
