The "new" bridge in Baton Rouge is 50 years old this month

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There will be no cake, no balloons, no party on Tuesday to mark a regional icon’s big moment. It’s a shame, considering how likely, at any moment, hundreds of people might be stopped there with nothing better to do.

What locals call the “new bridge" — the Horace Wilkinson Bridge across the Mississippi River — turns 50 years old on April 10.

As part of Interstate 10 and a primary commuter route, the bridge is the area’s most vital transportation link. More than 100,000 cars and trucks cross daily, the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development reports. Frequent accidents and a design that forces eastbound traffic to one lane means those vehicles often cross very, very slowly.

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Substructure construction on that new bridge began in 1963, a tricky procedure in a deep, constantly flowing river, and complicated by being on North America’s busiest inland waterway. In November 1964, high winds blew a 763-foot-long grain tanker against a bridge pier casting, denting it. In February 1965, a freighter struck a bridge pier, knocking four men off it and toppling a 400-ton steel structure. The men were not seriously injured.

Once piers rose out of the water, the superstructure began extending from the highway approaches on both sides. At 1,235 feet, it was, at the time, the nation’s third longest cantilever span.

That part went pretty much as planned, said David Huval Sr., who worked for DOTD from 1965 to 1977. But there were moments, such as when a piece of steel 4 feet long and 10 inches in diameter came loose from atop the bridge.

“One of those pins fell and came right through a barge, and the pin had to be taken out from the bottom of the river. I was there when that happened,” said Huval, who now runs engineering and construction firms in Lafayette. “I remember that caused some stir. That’s the only thing I remember on the superstructure. Everything else they erected piece by piece.”

Those pieces added up to 106 million pounds of steel, 233,515 cubic yards of concrete and 2,793 tons of asphalt extending 175 feet above the water at a cost of $46 million. The Port Allen interchange, which connected traffic to La. 1 and the Port of Baton Rouge, was the most complex that had been built in Louisiana, state highway officials said.

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