Posted on 02/07/2019 12:16:48 AM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Toll revenue would pay for only 17 percent of a new bridge across the Mississippi River in Baton Rouge, a top state official said Tuesday.
Eric Kalivoda, deputy secretary for the state Department of Transportation and Development, made the comment during the first meeting of a panel seeking ways to finance a new bridge, which would cost about $1 billion.
The seven-member panel features leaders of five parishes in the Baton Rouge area, including East Baton Rouge Parish Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome.
Kalivoda's comments reinforced what officials knew coming in paying for a new bridge is a huge financial and political challenge with no easy answers.
DOTD Secretary Shawn Wilson, a member of the commission, said there is a misconception that toll money can handle the brunt of the costs.
Kalivoda told the group that although more research is being done, at least 75 percent of the financing would have to come from other sources even if the impact of tolls is revised upward.
The tolls could range from $3 for passenger vehicles to $8 for heavy trucks, according to state estimates.
What the state envisions is a six-lane structure with four-lane approaches on each side connecting La. 1 to La. 30 south of the new bridge.
The current structure known locally as the "new" bridge even though it is a half century old is the source of daily backups, motorists' anger and business disruptions.
About 150,000 cars and trucks cross the bridge daily, according to DOTD.
State Sen. Rick Ward, R-Port Allen, a sponsor of the bill, said problems sparked by bridge traffic have to be addressed.
(Excerpt) Read more at theadvocate.com ...
PING.
...and yet we can’t build a border wall.
BTW, I’ve driven over the I-10 bridge at Baton Rouge over the Mississippi many times and it is a majestic view but your vehicle needs to climb quite the hill in order for ships to pass through underneath. I don’t think I’d chance it under icy conditions.
I am convinced that all these tolls are intended to stop cross country car travel. They intend to make it so expensive on tolls alone, that nobody would dare try to make a cross country trip by car.
Pretty soon you’ll be stopped every few miles to pay another toll.
not counting political graft & corruption
so better count on 50-60 yrs.
“I am convinced that all these tolls are intended to stop cross country car travel.”
If not to get you out of cars altogether.
I live a dozen miles west of NYC, and never go there; among many reasons, the fact that tolls are higher than the minimum wage to cross the Hudson River (in a car). When NYC libs talk about “congestion pricing” in lower Manhattan, they couldn’t make it more clear: They don’t want little people/common folk there. It isn’t as though they are clamoring to close it to ALL car traffic - just people who can’t pay.
Take it from that bullet train in California.
If there were still toll bridges on US 20, US 30 and I-80, the drug dealers running in and out of Chiraq would be charging more for crack. Can't have that.
“If 90% of the vehicles are cars & 10% are trucks at $3 and $8 respectively, thats $525,000 a day. That means roughly 5-6 years to earn back the one billion dollars, not counting political graft & corruption. “
Mississippi is a RTW state. Without union involvement, they can build this quickly.
“Mississippi is a RTW state. Without union involvement, they can build this quickly.”
This is in Louisiana, the poster child for graft and corruption in the South.
“The tolls could range from $3 for passenger vehicles”
Thanks Tol. The above means to expect roughly $10 to start with with passenger cars, as expenses seem to go up, once they know they have a captive public.
Also, I think this would be the only tolling on I-10, anywhere from Jacksonville to Los Angeles.
Bastards.
What, the Mississippi River isn’t in Mississippi?
;-)
?????
No
The CBO estimated that of the $2.4 trillion long-term price tag for the war, about $1.9 trillion of that would be spent on Iraq, or $6,300 per U.S. citizen. The most recent CBO report, which was conducted after the end of combat operations and hence did not have to estimate future costs, was released in December 2014.
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=money+spend+building+in+syria+and+Iraq+-+hotels+bridges+roads
You forget, it is Louisiana.
Fortunately, the area seldom experiences icy conditions - climbing a hill is far better than to get backed up waiting for a draw bridge. When Katrina took out the bridge between Biloxi and Ocean Springs, MS, they did the replacement right and arced it high enough to dispense with the draw bridge...when you have a drawbridge, you also have the occasional deal when a big barge has a “oopsie” and bangs into part of the structure, causing a long period of long alt-routes, with back-up traffic from the extra ‘flow” along the alt-route, as they inspect and/or repair the structure.
“What, the Mississippi River isnt in Mississippi?”
Just kinda brushes past it for a spell. :P)
But Baton Rouge definitely ain’t in Mississippi. :0)
I-10, Baton Rouge, La., Mississippi River
The Sunshine bridge was built as a toll bridge. It was unsuccessful because it was a political boondoggle built in the middle of nowhere. Maybe they could link from I-10 to the Sunshine bridge on the west bank.
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