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Hopes for new Mississippi River bridge moves into ‘pre-construction activities’ phase

The Capital Area Road and Bridge District and the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development have partnered to release a Request for Qualifications for pre-construction activities for a new Mississippi River Bridge and its connectors within the Capital Region.

The RFQ, released yesterday, seeks an engineering and consulting firm to conduct enhanced planning—the first stage of federally required pre-construction analyses, for which Gov. John Bel Edwards’ administration has already committed $5 million in state surplus dollars.

In a prepared statement, CARB-D chairman J.H. “Jay” Campbell says the RFQ “will help the bridge project to be shovel-ready, and will determine the bridge’s physical location, the use of potential toll fares and more essential information.”

Along with the construction of a new Mississippi River bridge, the coalition will oversee the construction of bridge connectors to Interstate 10 on the west side of the river, and to Louisiana Highway 30 on the east side of the river.

Aiming to ensure local priorities are met, CARB-D will be involved in the process of selecting a firm to conduct the analyses. District commissioners include the presidents of Ascension, East Baton Rouge, Iberville, Livingston and West Baton Rouge parishes; DOTD secretary Shawn Wilson; and a gubernatorial appointee.

The RFQ closes Aug. 29.

Original Article by Caitie Burkes at Business Report

State looks for consultants for new $1B Mississippi River bridge plan in Baton Rouge

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

Letters: Legislators take ‘important first step’ in complex funding of new Mississippi River bridge

While issues at the State Capitol can sometimes be divisive, everyone across the region agrees that traffic is a serious problem.

Because traffic is a quality-of-life issue for drivers that also significantly impacts regional and national commerce, the Capital Region Legislative Delegation chose to support funding for a new Mississippi River bridge as its top priority during the recent legislative session. Our membership from the nine-parish region worked alongside Secretary Shawn Wilson of the Department of Transportation and Development, Gov. John Bel Edwards’ administration, and our partners the Capital Area Road and Bridge District (CARBD) and the CRISIS Coalition to obtain $5 million in funding to begin the environmental phase of this project.

This initial funding is only a starting point when it comes to the total costs associated with a new bridge, but it marks an important first step. Before construction can begin, the bridge location must be selected, and the necessary environmental approvals must be secured.

Those involved in the project are not wasting any time. At their June 17 meeting, members of the CARBD voted to approve issuance of a request for qualifications to bring on a project team to handle the enhanced planning and environmental evaluation phase of the project. Resulting environmental impact data, public input and other relevant information will be used to select a final site for the new bridge. This work is expected to begin in early 2020.

While this work moves forward, long-term funding options are being explored for the actual construction of the bridge, including public/private financing partnerships, tolls, and federal funds. A project this significant will likely require a combination of these.

We would like to thank everyone involved in this collaborative effort to move forward with this critical infrastructure project that will provide congestion relief to the Capital Region and particularly to over one hundred thousand drivers per day who utilize the I-10 Mississippi River Bridge. We also encourage everyone interested in following the progress of the new bridge to visit the CARBD website at capitalareabridge.org.

State Rep. Steve Carter
chairman, Capital Region Legislative Delegation
Baton Rouge
Editor’s Note: This letter is signed by 27 members of the Baton Rouge legislative delegation.

Original Article by Steve Carter at the Advocate

Mississippi River bridge coalition secures $5M in surplus funds for preliminary work

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

Mississippi River bridge coalition secures $5M in surplus funds for preliminary work

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 the Business Report.

Capital Area Road and Bridge District gets to work on third Mississippi River span

Gov. John Bel Edwards signed into a law a bill creating a five-parish regional taxing authority tasked with finding a way to finance a new bridge across the Mississippi River.

The Capital Area Road and Bridge District will comprise the five parishes of the chronically gridlocked Capital Region: East Baton Rouge, West Baton Rouge, Ascension, Iberville and Livingston. It’s potentially the most significant step forward in years toward addressing one of the main sources of congestion in the area: the need for a third bridge.

Sen. Rick Ward, R-Port Allen, who sponsored the bill to create the district, says he’s eager for its leadership to get to work as soon as possible. However, he adds that just because the district was legalized doesn’t mean anything will happen fast, if at all.

“It’s going to take a while,” Ward says. “But I don’t want any grass to grow under this thing. We have a little momentum in terms of trying to get something accomplished, so I’m going to try to keep pushing on it as hard as I can.”

Ward hopes the district leadership—which by law must include the five parish presidents, a gubernatorial appointee and the secretary of the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development—can meet as soon as June to come up with a game plan.

Meeting will be the easy part. Bigger challenges include determining what sort of funding mechanisms voters in the five parishes might support, getting voters to approve those measures on a ballot next year, if possible, and figuring out where a new bridge can and should be located.

Language in the law is broad and allows the district a variety of funding options, from tolls to four taxing options: levying ad valorem, or property, taxes; imposing an annual parcel fee not to exceed $500; levying a sales tax not to exceed 1%; or issuing bonds secured by ad valorem and sales taxes.

Ward says a half-cent sales tax in the five parish region could generate an estimated $90 million a year, which could be bonded out to help pay for a bridge that’s expected to cost upwards of $1 billion. Under such a scenario, tolls would also be needed to pay for the project.

Ward realizes a lot of pieces have to fall into place. But he says addressing the region’s infrastructure problems is critical to the future of the state’s economy and that something has to be done.

“When you talk to major businesses that would contemplate coming to the state, the one thing that holds us back is lack of infrastructure,” he says. “They say, well, other states have new infrastructure in place and you haven’t done anything in 20 years.”

Original Article by Stephanie Riegel at Business Report

Graves working on federal funding opportunities for new Mississippi River bridge

While several state lawmakers lobby the Legislature for infrastructure funding to build a new Mississippi River bridge, among other transportation projects, efforts are also underway on the federal level that U.S. Rep. Garret Graves hopes will help support a new bridge.

Much of the national focus has been on talk of a massive $2 trillion federal infrastructure plan, which basically fell apart Wednesday. But there’s another, perhaps less talked about, avenue for transportation funding on the table this year—the FAST Act reauthorization bill.

The Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act, signed into law in 2015 as a five-year $305 billion infrastructure funding plan, is set to expire Sept. 30, 2020. Congress must reauthorize the bill before then, or the funding source will dry up.

The 2015 FAST Act helped fund critical Baton Rouge area projects, such as the Washington Street exit reconfiguration and the widening of Interstate 10. Graves, who serves on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, played a central role in securing the federal dollars for Louisiana’s projects. All told, he says, the state received $760 million in additional federal transportation funding since the 2015 FAST Act.

The Baton Rouge congressman is now working with fellow lawmakers on a FAST Act reauthorization bill, hopefully this year, which could help fund the new bridge. But there must be a concrete project in place for the bridge, he says, to receive funding.

Graves met last week with the five-parish Capital Area Road and Bridge District, which is tasked with developing the new Mississippi River span.

“If there is a reauthorization bill, as I said at the meeting last Monday, ya’ll have to come up with your project,” Graves says. “As soon as they do, I’m ready to help. But we need some type of project we can point to rather than just saying we need a new bridge.”

In short, the coalition needs to decide and approve plan specifics—location and cost, among many decisions, as well as how it will be built.

Graves’ original objective with the 2015 FAST Act was the bridge, he says, but at that time there was no project, so he’s pushing the five-parish coalition this time around to have that ready to go.

“I think it’s great that they have everyone in the room with a singular focus,” Graves says of the coalition. “The progress being made is good.”

The CARBD, which was formed last year, has been working on preliminary steps, such as completing the environmental impact study and drafting an RQF, to move forward with the new bridge.

But there’s no guarantee the reauthorization bill will happen this year, due to the political environment, which has stalled larger infrastructure plans.

“If we do it this year, there’s a chance it gets punted, and next year being a presidential election year, things get too political to have merit-based discussions,” Graves says. “That’s why we’d like to get it done this year.”

Original Article by Annie Ourso Landry at the Business Report

Mississippi Bridge coalition eyeing state surplus to fund next steps

A critical next step for the five-parish Capital Area Road and Bridge District, tasked with developing a new Mississippi River span, is to secure funding to complete an environmental impact study, which is required for the effort to move forward.

Where that money comes from could be decided soon.

CARBD leaders and state Sen. Rick Ward are eyeing the state budget surplus to fund the study and other preliminary steps for the district. The other option is state capital outlay funds, though those dollars would take longer to receive than surplus funds.

“The governor’s administration mentioned it would like the bulk of the surplus to go to infrastructure,” says Ward, who sponsored legislation creating the CARBD last year. “Our delegation has requested that, if possible, we get a substantial amount sent over to the road and bridge authority to complete the study.”

Completing the environmental study for the bridge—which was started years ago as part of the loop study—will cost some $5 million, Ward says, but the district plans to ask for more than that to potentially expedite the process and cover other expenses, such as a program manager.

The state has an estimated $300 million surplus, but $100 million or so is constitutionally required to go to the “rainy day fund” and paying off debt. So the CARBD will be asking for a chunk of the remaining $200 million, though an exact amount has not been nailed down yet.

Ward expects the state to make a decision on how to spend the surplus funds within the last few days of the Legislative session, which ends June 6.

“I feel confident we’ll leave the session with a significant amount for the authority to start making progress on necessary steps,” Ward says.

The five-parish district, meanwhile, is working on other necessary efforts to move forward with a new bridge, such as drafting a Request for Qualifications to hire a project manager for the district and—of course—identifying funding for the new bridge.

The CARBD is also quietly drawing significant support and interest. The district’s third public meeting on Monday drew a crowd that included U.S. Rep. Garret Graves and several individuals from the private sector interested in the prospect of a public-private partnership, which was discussed at the meeting, Ward says.

Nial Patel, a local developer and lobbyist, says he was one of about 30 to 40 people who attended the meeting. Patel, a BRAC board member, says he’s helping with the district’s efforts and encouraging others to get involved.

“I’ve been telling people if you support a new bridge, show up at these meetings,” Patel says. “We’re helping move the ball forward. I think progress is being made. Some people want to jump to step 10, but we have to cover the other steps to get there.”

Original Article by Annie Ourso Landry at the Business Report

Committee tasked with finding new ways to fund third bridge needs money

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

Mississippi River bridge coalition selects Jay Campbell as chair

The five-parish Capital Area Road and Bridge District held its second meeting today, with the seven-member coalition electing Jay Campbell as chairperson and Baton Rouge Mayor Sharon Weston Broome as vice chair.

Campbell, the former president and CEO of Associated Grocers, was tapped as the governor’s appointee on the five-parish coalition last week, replacing Mike Wampold. Other members of the district include the presidents of the five parishes—East Baton Rouge, West Baton Rouge, Iberville, Ascension and Livingston—and the DOTD secretary.

Another item on the agenda was setting up a working group of parish and DOTD personnel to begin the process of drafting a Request for Qualifications to hire a project manager for the district, tasked with exploring ways to finance and establish a new bridge across the Mississippi River.

“The goal is to get the RFQ prepared and issued to get the process started,” Campbell says.

The project manager would be in charge of completing the necessary studies, such as a new bridge environmental impact study, to move forward with the development of a bridge.

While drafting the RFQ will be done by volunteers on the five-parish coalition, funds will be needed to pay the project manager when the request goes out, which was another item up for discussion at today’s meeting.

District members raised the possibility of having each member parish put up money for a period of time while the coalition tries to secure finances from the state Legislature, says Sen. Rick Ward, R-Port Allen, who sponsored legislation creating the five-parish district last year.  

Ward also acknowledged the district must complete the necessary studies if a new bridge is to ever come to fruition, and the environmental impact study on the bridge has never been completed.

“People are so tired of hearing about studies,” he says, “but in order to do anything to move forward, we have to complete the environmental study.”

Original Article by Annie Ourso Landry at the Business Report