re: Why is there no longer any political will for big public works projects?

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you think texdot had no say in that?

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Of course, as well as the municipalities. But management, execution, and post support/maitenance is all NTTA.

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There was no EPA. Environmental and historic review process takes forever and cost $. God forbid you impact a wetland, a building that is over 50 years old, or hook toothed skink habitat. That will slow a project and cost more $. Look at the I-10 widening in BR. It's been in environmental and historic review for over 1 year. That's where they are with the new bridge right now too.

Regulations have driven up the cost of building stuff we need.

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Most other states are still building new infrastructure as needed.

I can understand where wetlands are involved, that's a much bigger problem in LA vs other places, but that in no way explains all the total incompetence around here.

Raise taxes this November so the can build the new beige in port Allen so a new ms bridge can be feasible

That would put shovels to work digging six feet repeatedly.

Because if the true cost is 15 million and a 4 year completion timeframe, we would pay 75 million for it and a bunch of ole construction base and politicians would pocket the difference, and it would take 20 years to complete

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R.S. 38:2212: A. (1) All public work exceeding the contract limit . . . shall be advertised and let by contract to the lowest responsible and responsive bidder who had bid according to the bidding documents as advertised . . .

"Responsible" = not a convicted felon and doesn't boycott Israel.

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Most(all?) governmental units are allowed to reject a low bid if there are known issues with the contractor. If there are no known extenuating circumstances, they are required to accept the lowest bid.

Wrong. EBR voters recently passed a billion dollar plus plan go improve local and state highways.

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Someone mentioned to me at work the other day that NTTA has to make projects within a certain timeframe or they start paying fines.

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LA DOTD routinely includes fines in their contracts for missed completion dates or quality/safety violations.

The problem is that they often go unenforced. The contractors all have political buddies that give them shelter when something goes wrong. This allows shitty contractors to low-bid projects knowing they won’t actually be held to the standards in the contracts.

The state doesn’t have the balls to bankrupt a contractor when they over-promise and under-deliver. If they did, I bet you’d see much more realistic “low bids” start coming in.

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They need to create a new bridge by L'Auberge that is a toll bridge.

And design it in a way that it could potentially one day be part of a loop.

But what do I know.

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seems like a good head you have there because some of the best roadway, bridge and transportation engineers say that is near one of the best locations.