BATON ROUGE — The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has approved the start of an environmental assessment for Mississippi River Bridge project alternatives south of Baton Rouge. According to the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD) Secretary Glenn Ledet, this is a significant step forward and involves the community’s input.
“This is just a really important milestone for this final project, and we’re excited to kick this off and move it to the next crucial stage so we can get the implementation, hopefully with a finding of no significant impact for these alternatives.”
The FHWA’s approval marks a significant step in advancing the project. It begins the formal process of public and stakeholder engagement to ensure the bridge is planned responsibly, with transparency and community input.
The environmental assessment is a 12-month process that will involve additional field surveys, biological research, cultural research, air and noise, along with technical and engineering work such as hydrology; traffic, bridge, and road design; and public outreach, Ledet explained. While the assessment should take one year, discovering any impacts to the area could mean that DOTD will need to revisit aspects of the assessment, which would add time.
If the environmental assessment finds any significant impacts, that would mean the need for an environmental impact statement, a more lengthy kind of environmental study, the secretary added.
These steps are necessary as part of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), a federal law that requires federally funded transportation projects to evaluate potential impacts before moving forward. The review considers environmental, community and transportation effects while comparing alternatives.
Findings from the assessment will guide the selection of a preferred alternative and lay the groundwork for federal approval to move into the design and construction phase once funding is secured.
A preliminary design and decisions on procurement will come next.
According to Ledet, this milestone has been in the works for years now. DOTD has worked for several years on studies and collecting data to get the FHWA’s approval to be able to start the environmental assessment portion of this project.
“Our team did a lot of hard work over the last several weeks to make sure that we received all of the approvals we needed to start this environmental assessment and get all the additional work necessary to start this,” Ledet said.
The three alternatives all tie in Iberville Parish, connecting LA Hwy 1 and LA Hwy 30, Ledet said.
In October 2023, UWK spoke to then Iberville Parish President Mitchell Ourso about the project. Ourso said he was thrilled the three potential locations are all in Iberville Parish and said he’s been waiting decades for the bridge to happen.
“I’ve been in here 26 years, and I’ve been fighting for this bridge for that long,” he’d said.
The environmental assessment will be the determining factor in what alternative is chosen for the new Mississippi River Bridge, what Ledet called a “matrix of all of the benefits and impacts.”
“You have to look at both human environment and natural environment impacts in the benefits of the project, and then weigh all of those and work with FHWA to decide which project is most beneficial to the public and least impactful,” Ledet told UWK.
Ledet said at this point, it’s too early to say when the project might be completed. Knowing the procurement method (public-private partnership or state/federally funded) will better determine a timeline for completion.
“When we get a few months down the road, I can probably better answer that question once we get a little bit further in this environmental process and start making the decisions on how we’re going to procure the project,” Ledet said.
Two upcoming community briefings will provide residents with an overview of the project, including details of the assessment and the alternatives that are in consideration:
- Tuesday, December 9, 5-7 p.m. at the St. Gabriel Community Center- St. Gabriel, La.
- Wednesday, December 10, 5-7 p.m. at the Plaquemine Community Center- Plaquemine, La.
“Those are some of the first really good abilities for us to have interaction with the public in person for this environmental assessment,” Ledet said.
In spring 2026, DOTD will hold four larger public meetings, two on the east bank of the river and two on the west bank, to discuss more detailed road design, alignment, conceptual bridge designs and cost estimates for three alternatives. and get public feedback to include in the draft environmental assessment. Dates and locations will be announced in the coming weeks.
“As we continue to move this project in the right direction, it is crucial for the public to be engaged in the upcoming meetings as this is an important part of the NEPA process,” he said.
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