NEWS

New Louisiana Agency Vows to Fix or Replace 62 Bridges in 15 Months

Red River Radio | By Jeff Ferrell,

Published September 18, 2025 at 3:05 PM CDT

The LA 94 Vermilion River Bridge Replacement is a $6.9 million project, connecting Lafayette and St. Martin Parishes. At 152 feet, this new construction (seen above) is an extreme example of a maximum size of any work that will be undertaken in this 62 bridge project.

Four of the first seven bridges [of the 62 total] are located in North and Central Louisiana: in Desoto, Jackson, Natchitoches, and Vernon Parishes. The agency has authority to cut through administrative 'red tape,' to move forward at a faster pace.

Louisiana has set an ambitious goal of fixing 62 small bridges in rural areas by the end of next year. That includes 4 of the first 7 bridges which are located in North and Central Louisiana. Those include:

Further details on bridge locations are available here. Lawmakers created the Office of Louisiana Highway Construction with the passage of House Bill NO. 2 / ACT No.2 during the state’s 2025 Regular Legislative Session. The measure gave this newly-created office the authority to cut through the ‘red tape’ faster to help complete a project in 15 months, for example, instead of two years. As the Louisiana Radio Network reports, the executive director of the new office is Archie Chaisson. He explained, “Although we adopt some of their standards and we’re going to build some quality bridges based on how we build the infrastructure throughout the state, we have things like emergency procurement authority, and some other things that the legislature gave us to go tackle some of these things quicker.”

For the second year in a row, Louisiana finds itself ranked as the 8th highest state of structurally deficient bridges. The Chart (above) does reveal a nearly 2% drop in the last four years. The annual National Bridge Inventory (NBI) is carried out through the U.S. Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT), in which each state reports this information. The American Road and Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) also releases the data in its annual ARTBA’s Bridge Report. — For the second year in a row, Louisiana finds itself ranked as the 8^th highest state of structurally deficient bridges. The Chart (above) does reveal a nearly 2% drop in the last four years. The annual National Bridge Inventory (NBI) is carried out through the U.S. Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT), in which each state reports this information. The American Road and Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) also releases the data in its annual ARTBA’s Bridge Report.

The Office of Louisiana Highway Construction comes with a price tag of $100 million. Lawmakers used funds that were in Louisiana’s Rainy-Day Fund, all to pay for this project. As Chaisson says, these are small bridges, no longer than 150 feet, and are considered to be in poor shape.
These small bridges also already have weight limits, or are closed to all traffic, which means detours. As a former parish (Lafourche) president himself Chaisson relates, “I understand that and how some of these all-system bridges can really impact daily commuters in parishes and different regions of the state.” Most cases, he says, involve a complete bridge removal and construction of a new one.
A 2023 report classified 11.2% of the state’s bridges (1,423 out of 12,684) as structurally deficient. This distinction means a key component of a bridge is considered to be in poor condition. For Real-time information on specific bridge closures, construction, and conditions the public is encouraged to go to the Louisiana DOTD website and the 511la.org traffic alert site.

As for the legislation for the new program, mentioned at the beginning of the story, Governor Jeff Landry signed Act No.2 into law June 20,2025, and it became effective July 1, 2025, as part of Louisiana’s comprehensive state capital outlay budget for the 2025-2026 Fiscal year.