If you traverse the roadways far enough in the state of Louisiana, you’ll eventually have to cross a bridge or any number of bridges. Many of those structures are aging or have been neglected for long stretches of time.
While there have been numerous attempts in the past to address bridges in piecemeal fashion, the hope is that a consolidated department will be able to more cohesively address infrastructure issues across the state.
Archie Chaisson, Executive Director of the Office of Louisiana Highway Construction, joined WWL’s Tommy Tucker to discuss some of the changes that could be coming to the bridges spanning the state’s waterways.
In discussing the difference between the newly created department vs the DOTD many are already aware of, Chaisson said the main benefit is expediency.
“It’s set up to move a little bit faster. There’s less federal oversight, so we can use a bit of a different playbook,” he explained. The hope is that less red tape will speed up many of these necessary projects.
Additionally, Chaisson noted that there are emergency procurement powers within the new office that will allow the department to work on an initial set of bridge repair projects.
“We get to bypass some of the red tape and engage with the engineers and contractors directly to pull off these projects quickly. A repair project that may have taken 2 years will probably take closer to 15 months now that we’re not having to work through the DOTD,” he told Tommy Tucker.
Chaisson told WWL listeners that this department’s creation will allow a streamlining of what used to be a long and drawn-out bidding process, and he hopes that will lead to infrastructure projects across the state being sped up.
Additionally, Louisiana residents will soon be able to keep track of the bridge and infrastructure projects being worked on via a website that will feature real-time photos, budgets, and building plans. That website should be launched within the next week and Chaisson’s department intends to feature that information going forward.