Forget new Baton Rouge bridge, its better to link BR and NOLa.
16th May 2022 · 0 Comments
By Christopher Tidmore
Contributing Columnist
This week, Gov. John Bel Edwards will make his final push to sequester $500 million of surplus funds as a down payment towards a new Mississippi River bridge in Baton Rouge. However, there are easier, cheaper and far faster methods to alleviate Baton Rouge’s endemic traffic situation – and at the same time increase massive economic development from the West Bank of New Orleans all the way to West Baton Rouge.
A better idea would be to widen existing bridges over the river, which can be done without a decade of environmental studies. It often has the same effect as constructing a new bridge, at a fraction of the cost. Widening the Sunshine Bridge near Donaldsonville and the I-310 bridge near Luling, along with adding lanes to La. 3127 and La. 1, would create a West Bank corridor. More importantly, the right of ways already exist, so years of studies need not occur.
Put simply, we also need to make it easier for people to travel between, not only the downtowns of Baton Rouge and New Orleans, but the bedroom communities in between from Prairieville to LaPlace, and Donaldsonville to Westwego.
Roads in the Ring Cities
The bedroom communities along the river between Baton Rouge and New Orleans have seen explosive growth. But, the roads that link them to I-10 or the Mississippi River Bridges are two lanes and antiquated, keeping people “bottled up” during rush hour periods and less likely to make a car commute very far, particularly to New Orleans or Baton Rouge, whichever is more distant.
There are many examples, but perhaps the best is Highway 73 in the Prairieville area. Part of the same Jefferson Hwy. that runs through Jefferson Parish, it has become a transit link for the suburban subdivisions that link it to River Road and the Sunshine Bridge and I-10.
It is crowded all of the time, and as a state road, it is the responsibility of the legislature to widen. But, why should the constituents of metro New Orleans care about Prairieville?
After Katrina, many locals moved there to be close enough to Metairie to commute to work and repair their homes. Normally, it should be less than an hour drive, no worse than coming from Covington to Downtown NOLA. But, thanks to the backup along the road, driving times can easily exceed an hour.
Many New Orleanians who were commuting until their lives were restored considered the extra fifteen to twenty minutes each way too much. They decided to either seek jobs in the closer Baton Rouge area, or just leave Louisiana altogether.
Better “Interstate” Connections
Highway 73, like many roads, just leads into a choke point at I-10. What we need is a major transport corridor, at interstate level, besides the I-10.
One suggestion has come from former Donaldsonville Mayor Harold Capello. In the interest of future evacuations from New Orleans or transit between the Crescent City and Baton Rouge, upgrade Highway 3127 into a four-lane, limited access, interstate level road.
Running from I-310, just prior to the roadway’s end, along the West Bank of Mississippi River, it intersects Highway 1 just south of West Baton Rouge and links into the I-10 system. Ironically, while the road is two lanes right now, the right-of-ways and grade upgrades were built almost two decades ago to construct a second span parallel to the first.
“If you just paved the road, people could drive on it tomorrow,” Capello told this reporter. His plan, which he has argued for before Congress and the Legislature for the past seven years would widen 3127 and build bypasses with exits on open land around the riverside communities of Donaldsonville, White Castle and Plaquemine.
“The road would take pressure off of I-10. It could cut evacuation times out of New Orleans in half,” he said.
Capello’s interest in constructing the roadway is also to aid his West Bank town. As he noted, the historic community of Donaldsonville, whose downtown bears a close resemblance to Covington, is only 30 minutes from downtown Baton Rouge and an hour from downtown New Orleans right now. With a full freeway, the commute times would make this West Bank community ideal to become bedroom extensions of the metros.
If Baton Rouge and New Orleans are to grow into the same city, affordable middle class housing options within short driving time of both cities are a necessity – so Capello contends.
At just over a million dollars per mile, Capello’s vision for 3127 could be reached for less than $100 million. It could be the first step in an alternative freeway loop across South Louisiana.
Currently, I-49 has less than 30 miles of extensions to make to complete the interstate all the way to the New Orleans West Bank expressway. The remaining distance requires roughly $2 million per mile to extend roadway over wetlands without causing environmental damage. The state has asked the federal government for the monies, but an additional $60 million could bridge the gap.
Then, down the West Bank Expressway over the Crescent City Connection, I-10 at Airline comes within 300 yards of the freeway that, as one elected official put it “starts no where and goes to nowhere.” The Earhart Expressway begins at Carrollton Ave. and goes to David Drive. Few cars use the completed roadway.
A simple look over the first overpass shows the closeness of I-10 at Airline Dr. An extension over the open ground bordering the 17th St. Canal could be built for less than $20 million, according to one transportation engineer that this newspaper consulted.
Thus, building a road system is a direct benefit to the residents of District 82. An “interstate level highway” that runs through the center of the district could be accessible to the residents in case of a hurricane or easier transport between Downtown New Orleans and the Airport.
For example, from David Drive to the Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, the state owns the former railroad land and could construct an interstate level road without requiring any eminent domain issues or excessive costs – roughly costing $40 million.
At the airport, a raised roadway could link I-10 over the airport access road or continue over Airline to link directly into I-310.
For less than $200 million, an alternative evacuation route, taking pressure off of I-10 could be built. Such a route would allow the metros of Baton Rouge and New Orleans to grow together, along with bedroom communities stretching to Lafayette within an hour’s drive of either downtown area. There is the added benefit to legislators that road construction rarely proves unpopular with their constituents, and this plan would cover most of South Louisiana.
Harry Hoyler, the former general manager of KKAY 1590 AM White Castle/ Baton Rouge, a noted advocate of regional integration, has often said, “The different cities need each other to survive. Baton Rouge has business. New Orleans has soul. Together they create a ‘quality of life’ that attracts new residents for other states. The communities in between like Donaldsonville, Prairieville, and others have the land and resources to support affordably a new population…Only constructing a freeway system that supports major regional development can anchor this growth. Extending 3127 and linking it into I-49 and the Earhart creates something Louisiana has never seen: a West Bank loop, outside the I-10. That could spawn growth the likes of which Louisiana has never seen.”
State law does permit tolls or user fees on existing roads and bridges if they are improved or expanded. This helps close the funding gap, and since these are shovel ready projects, they should be available monies within the infrastructure bill. Most importantly, all of these projects together would cost a fraction of a $2 billion bridge over the Mississippi River, and not even the $500 million that Governor Edwards seeks to put aside.
This article originally published in the May 16, 2022 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
