Plans for a new Mississippi River bridge advance — but will new leaders support them?

With statewide elections on the horizon in Louisiana, some Baton Rouge-area officials working to bring a new Mississippi River bridge to the region are worried leadership changes could derail construction before it even starts. 

“We should be very cognizant of the election cycle,” John Diez, Ascension Parish chief administrative officer, said during a Monday meeting of the Capitol Area Road and Bridge District. “You’ll have a lot of people not from Baton Rouge who, quite honestly, don’t understand what this corridor means to our economy. Now is the time to educate them on why this is important.”

The district, a commission made up of officials from the five parishes most affected by the project, held their quarterly meeting on Monday and discussed hiring a consultant tasked with creating informational material on the project’s benefits for those running for elected office this fall.

The project is currently in the midst of an environmental review of the three sites that have been identified for the bridge. 

All three potential sites are in Iberville Parish, just south of Plaquemine on the west side and St. Gabriel on the east.

During their March meeting, members of the district said they hope to pick the final site by Spring 2024. That estimate was pushed back Monday by contractors hired to manage the project by the Department of Transportation and Development, who said a decision will be finalized by August 2024. 

The long-term prospects of the $3 billion project are made murky by the departure of term-limited Gov. John Bel Edwards, who supports the project and will be replaced in January. The state still needs to determine how exactly to pay the $3 billion bill for the bridge and road improvements leading up to it.

This fall’s elections will also bring new legislators to the state capitol, and commissioners hope they’ll arrive educated on the project and its benefits to the state. 

“Some of the other parishes that are not, what they feel, directly impacted, don’t feel they don’t have a dog in this hunt,” said Jay Campbell, the head of the commission and Gov. Edwards’ appointee. “The core of the economic growth in Louisiana has been in south Louisiana, and particularly in the parishes that were named, Ascension, Iberville and West Baton Rouge, where all of the petrochemical industry is continuing to do significant expansions and growth in their plant facilities.”

No final decision was made on a consultant for the task at Monday’s meeting, but Campbell said he intends to create a proposal for the other commissioners to review in the coming weeks. 

The final selection of the bridge site will come after officials elected this November take office in January, so maintaining the momentum behind the project will be critical during that time, commissioners said. 

Consultants originally had a list of 32 possible locations. The seven-member commission narrowed the list to three in May of 2022.

Consultants are in the midst of an environmental study that reviews the potential impact of a new bridge on wildlife, wetlands, nearby residents and other factors. The results of that study, along with a host of other factors, will help determine the site selection.

All three of the possible sites would reduce peak travel time on La. 1 north by 50%, the biggest impact of any new crossing, consultants said.

Campbell said he would like the final location to be the most effective one that makes the largest impact on traffic congestion in the area, but the ongoing studies will help with narrowing down the list. 

The northernmost crossing is south of Plaquemine on the west side, which ties into La. 1 near the Iberville Parish Firing Range and less than a mile north of Evergreen Road.

On the east side, the crossing would link onto La. 30 about a half-mile south of the East Baton Rouge/Iberville Parish line.

Both the middle and southernmost proposals would be south of Plaquemine and tie into La. 1 between Evergreen Road just north of the main Shintech Drive.

State officials say the bridge itself will cost up to $1.5 billion and improvements on the key connectors — La. 30 on the east side and La. 1 on the west — could be another $1.5 billion.