Consultants are being sought for $5 million in preliminary work toward constructing a $1 billion bridge across the Mississippi River in Baton Rouge.

A request for qualifications was released this week by the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development for work that includes environmental engineering, traffic management, bridge design, road design and contract management. The deadline for submissions is Aug. 29.

The Capital Area Road and Bridge District, which includes representation from Ascension, Iberville, Livingston, and East  and West Baton Rouge parishes, approved the move toward pre-construction analysis. 

J.H. Campbell, chairman of the bridge district, said that the request is a step toward bridge development, such as determining its physical location, potential toll fares and other information.

The proposed bridge is expected to connect La. 1 on the west side of the river with La. 30 on the east side. 

The state transportation department has a goal of using Disadvantaged Business Enterprises, or DBEs, for at least 10 percent of the $5 million contract value, according to the request. 

The bridge district organization, tasked to find ways to alleviate traffic congestion and pursue bridge projects, was created in 2018. 

Read full article
by Kristen Mosbrucker at the Advocate

The Capital Area Road and Bridge District has secured $5 million in state surplus dollars, allocated to the state Department of Transportation and Development, to complete the environmental work necessary for the future development of a new Mississippi River span.

Securing the money is a significant step forward for the five-parish coalition, which previously had no finances. The funds will be used to move forward with preliminary work in the quest to bring a new bridge to the Capital Region, says state Sen. Rick Ward, R-Port Allen, who created the CARB-D last year.

The next step will be to put out a request for qualifications within the next few months to hire a project manager for the district, who will oversee the environmental process.

“We intend to have it contracted out by the end of the year,” says DOTD Secretary Shawn Wilson, a member of the road and bridge authority.

How long the environmental process will take isn’t clear, Wilson says, because much of the work that will need to be done won’t be determined until the process is underway.

“Still, we’re looking at a three- to four-year window—easy,” he adds.

In the meantime, CARB-D will continue working on what will amount to a much-larger challenge—securing funds to actually build the bridge.

“The hardest piece of the puzzle will be how do we pay for it,” Ward says. “Even if someone says they’ll put up $1 billion, great—but we have to pay it back. How do we do that? Tolls? Taxes?”

Advocates for the new bridge have said the solution will likely require both tolls and taxes. There’s also hope the district can draw down federal funding, but a development plan for the new bridge must be in place to do so.

Original Article
By Annie Ourso Landry at Business Report

The Capital Area Road and Bridge District, tasked with finding a new way to fund a third Mississippi River bridge, needs an initial injection of money to pay for studies the federal government will require before it approves a final plan.

Sen. Rick Ward, R-Port Allen, created the task force and says he hopes the legislature will use some surplus money to pay for the studies. The more money dedicated for the studies, the faster they can be done, although it’s unclear how much a bare minimum study would cost.

If state lawmakers do not agree to that plan, the five parishes involved in the negotiations would have to fork over the cash themselves, or “go back to the drawing board,” Ward said.

“To really start the work that needs to be done, we have to find some dollars,” Ward said, noting the issue was expected.

The state has conducted prior research into the construction of a third bridge, but Ward says those studies are incomplete and would not meet the federal requirements. For example, research into a loop around Baton Rouge would have included necessary environmental information on a new bridge, but the study ended early when it became clear the loop project would not be completed. Ward says he hopes any new studies would pick up where prior research left off.

“This is not going to be an instant process,” committee vice chair and Baton Rouge Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome said. “We have to exercise due diligence at all levels. It’s going to take a while before we see the outcomes of our decisions.”

Copyright 2019 WAFB. All rights reserved.

Original Article
by Matt Houston at WAFB

There are five locations along the Mississippi River that the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD) is looking into for a possible new bridge.

“There are only five locations that the Coast Guard will allow a bridge to be built because of the way the river moves,” said DOTD Secretary Dr. Shawn Wilson.

• Option 1 – Brusly to Baton Rouge
• Option 2 – Addis to Baton Rouge
• Option 3 – South of Plaquemine to St. Gabriel
• Option 4 – Addis to St. Gabriel
• Option 5 – Plaquemine to St. Gabriel

Dr. Wilson says there’s so much more involved than picking where a bridge could go.

“Which one has the most utility lines in the way? Which one will have the most traffic? Which one will offer the least amount of right of way acquisitions that will require displacements of families or businesses? Those are the comparisons you make. It’s not as simple as saying, ‘I want to cross right here,’” said Wilson.

Read full story
by Kiran Chawla at WAFB

A bill to form a commission to devise ways to fund and construct a new bridge across the Mississippi River was signed by Gov. John Bel Edwards and is now law, said the bill’s author, state Sen. Rick Ward.

“The overall concept is basically the same as the bill I originally filed, with only small changes,” he said. “The commission will be made up with representatives from the five parishes involved, Iberville, East Baton Rouge, Ascension, Livingston and West Baton Rouge parishes.

“One of the changes from the original bill is the make-up of the commission,” Ward said. “It will be made up of each of the parishes’ five presidents or their designees.”

Additionally, the board will consist of seven members, the final two being one appointed by the governor and the other will be La. Department of Transportation and Development Dr. Shawn Wilson.

“A lot of people believe that this is a taxing district and it’s not really,” Ward said. “This is an authority, a board designed to try to put together a plant and the hope is to try and get as much public-private partnership as possible.”

“There are other projects around the state that have done as much as 100 percent of the funding for projects like this through public-private partnerships,” he continued.

Ward said he believes there is a good chance that a private equity firm would buy into the project, bond out 100 percent of the funds needed (around $1.2 billion) and that firm would get paid of with tolls over a very extended period of time,” Ward said.

He said he wants the commission to explore every possible avenue of funding.

“While there are a menu of options for the tax side of this project, our first goal is to try to run as much as we can through a public-private partnership,” Ward said.

“You would also think that some of the chemical plants on both sides of Iberville Parish would seriously consider providing their employees with annual passes,” he continued.

The funding mechanism was not included in the bill, Ward said, because he didn’t want to restrict the commission’s opportunities.

“I didn’t want to hamstring it by just using one option and I wanted to be able to be open as possible on funding options,” Ward said.

“The people I talk to really seem to be interested in knowing about this part of the bill – these dollars generated by the commission cannot be used by the state,” he said. “These dollars have to be used by the five-parish region.”

“These dollars cannot be swept away by the state, they have to remain in this five—parish district and for this project only,” Ward continued, saying many Louisiana citizens recall a multitude of projects the voted for taxes to accomplish, only to have the state shuffle the money into its general fund.

The bill, Act 488, received overwhelming support from both sides of the Legislature. The House voted 81-0-2 in favor, two members were absent, while it passed unanimously through the Senate, 35-0.

“I think that a lot of people like the concept and are hoping they’ll see it be successful,” Ward said.

He confirmed a report that the presidents of four of the five parishes have acknowledged their support of the project, minus the opinion of Sharon Weston Broome, the president of the East Baton Rouge Parish government.

“I have n reason to believe at this point that all of the parish would be willing to work with us,” Ward said.

“I think we’re going to have a good collective effort and I think people are going to be excited about this,” he continued. “I think we’re going to get something done.”

Original Article
by Tommy Comeaux at Plaquemine Post South

Bill offered by state Sen. Rick Ward (R-Maringouin) would form a commission to try to come up with the means to build a bridge south of Baton Rouge to ease traffic pressure on I-10 bridge.

Iberville Parish President Mitchell Ourso has been pushing for a bridge somewhere south of Baton Rouge to ease traffic for years and a bill recently introduced by Sen. Rick Ward (R-Maringouin) could make that dream a reality.

Ward’s bill calls for the formation of a commission to work on a plan to finance the construction and its location. Voters in five parishes will have to approve the creation of the commission – Iberville, East and West Baton Rouge, Livingston and Ascension.

The commission would be responsible for finding the funding needed – and there are numerous options – and any tax or toll proposed by the group would have to be voted on by the residents of those five parishes.

The state Senate has already passed the proposal and Ward said it would be considered by the House of Representatives Tuesday, after the Post South deadline. If it is approved by the state’s representatives, it would be sent to Gov. John Bel Edwards for his signature and then be placed on a future ballot.

The need for another bridge has existed for decades, Ourso said, and as industries continue to expand or construct new plants in Iberville Parish, the problem has escalated since the mid-2000s.

“In the early 2000s, traffic really wasn’t too bad,” he said, but with the construction of Shintech south of Plaquemine and the population distribution created by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, traffic “has been a constant issue over the last 12, 13 years.”

“I think the push for a new bridge only started in the mid-2000s,” Ourso said. “But we’ve been blessed here in the greater Baton Rouge area with a good economy,” putting even more traffic on La. 1 and I-10. “I think that after ’05, if I had to pinpoint it, is when we started having a boom in our industry,” he said, and traffic has only gotten worse since then creating what he considers to be the necessity for a new bridge, according to Ourso.

“I think that after ’05, if I had to pinpoint it, is when we started having a boom in our industry,” he said, and traffic has only gotten worse since then creating what he considers to be the necessity for a new bridge, according to Ourso.

Read full story
by Tommy Comeaux at the Plaquemine Post South