re: Mississippi River bridge project hit with another delay

You may be right, but there is a ton of traffic that comes out of the plants on La1/ River road area. And it all bottle necks at inter coastal canal and trying to merge onto the bridge.

I’m not saying an interstate from sunshine bridge is a great idea or would fix the problem. But it definitely reroute a lot of that particular traffic

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You may be right, but there is a ton of traffic that comes out of the plants on La1/ River road area. And it all bottle necks at inter coastal canal and trying to merge onto the bridge.

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I mean that’s kind of my point. That’s commuter traffic. If the Sunshine Bridge was closer to those folks’ houses, they’d already be taking the Sunshine Bridge today. The speed limit between Plaquemine and the Sunshine Bridge is mostly between 50-65 mph.

They aren’t taking the I-10 bridge home from Dow/Shintech because it’s too hard to get to the Sunshine Bridge. They’re taking the I-10 bridge home because they live in BR/Denham/etc. and the Sunshine Bridge is out of the way.

I do think that a more direct, faster route from I-10 in Ascension to I-12 in Livingston (say from Sorrento/Gonzales to Walker/Denham) would alleviate a fair amount of congestion both on the I-10 bridge and on I-10/I-12 in general. However, that’s also probably a very expensive project considering the terrain challenges in that area.

Anyhow, the point is that the proposed new bridge is not really intended to be a loop or bypass. It’s intended to be a commuter bridge. This makes it easier to fund via tolls, and probably has more impact on peak traffic on the I-10 bridge than a true “bypass” anyway.

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I don't understand why they don't just build a interstate that goes over the sunshine bridge and bypasses BR Gross Tete to Sorrento. Probably 20% the cost of building a bridge. They can even run it up to 12 and tie in around Satsuma.

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Because it costs less money and politicians want their buddies to get paid.

Louisiana can screw up a wet dream when it comes to anything political, infrastructure, education and economics. Put it this way, EWE, got shite done, as long as he was given guaranteed envelopes. The state can thank Huey P Long for the corruption. It ain't never gonna change.

another few months.
What’s a few months when it’s taken 57 yesrs so far?

At this point I bet this bridge would be built 5+ years after they would have to tear down or do a massive renovation of the old bridge (the 190/Huey P. Long Bridge). Hell, maybe even the new bridge (I10) too.

Question, how many years has the Republicans controlled the Louisiana Legislature? Perhaps you should ask your representative in the Legislature why that are unable to get stuff done when they control the whole process.

He would've got more shite built than anyone. Thank him for building the GNO bridge

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It’s been 9 years since they started the Peceu entranc/exit ramp on I10 and they’re not close to finishing that project.

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1. It hasn’t been 9 years since they started the entrance/exit ramp. It’s been 2 years since they started phase 3 of the Pecue project (which includes the interstate interchange as well as the new Ward Creek bridge and all of the actual widening from Perkins to Airline).

2. I don’t think it’s accurate to say they are “not close to finishing” it. From what I understand it’s supposed to be complete early next year.

3. As usual, the primary reason the project has taken so long (since it was originally planned) is funding. Phase 1 (from 2017-2018) was $13 million. Then there was a year delay before phase 2 started, which was another $17 million. The final phase that started in 2023 was $69 million.

I’m not saying DOTD is some beacon of competence. They aren’t. But the number one reason most of these projects take so long from initial planning to completion is that there are more projects than there is money to fund them. So the projects get split up into phases that are funded (and bid) individually over a period of years.

A bunch of shite has moved forward over the past few years because of the influx of federal funding. Eventually that’ll dry up and we’ll be back to square one, until the legislature changes the gas tax or at least indexes it to inflation.