Louisiana Bridges At Risk? NTSB Calls For Safety Assessments

Whether you drive over a Louisiana bridge each day on your commute or only twice a year going back and forth on vacation, you may never think about whether that bridge will collapse.

Why Is A Warning Being Issued?

However, the National Transportation Safety Board says several bridges in Louisiana need further inspection after the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse in March 2024.

One of the big takeaways from the Baltimore tragedy was that Maryland officials did not assess the bridge sufficiently to understand its vulnerabilities. Six lives were taken when the ship, trying to pass under the bridge, instead hit the bridge. The NTSB says officials did not run the needed assessments on the bridge.

They caution 19 other states about various bridges and that these assessments are critical for safety.

Why Is This Report Coming Out?

After a container ship hit the Francis Scott Key Bridge, the NTSB began looking into bridges across the nation to determine whether or not there was the potential for something deadly like this to happen in other states.

The 26-page report urges state officials to develop a plan if a vessel strikes these eight bridges. For example, the Francis Scott Key Bridge was nearly 30 times above the acceptable risk threshold, so Louisiana officials must immediately pay attention to these eight bridges.

Which Louisiana Bridges Made The List?

According to the National Transportation Safety Board, eight bridges in Louisiana need to be assessed. They have an "unknown level of risk of collapse." Basically, they need to determine the potential for devastation if a vessel runs into any part of these bridges.

Here is a list of the bridges:

• Huey P. Long Bridge, Jefferson Parish
• Greater New Orleans Bridge, New Orleans
• Sunshine Bridge, Donaldsonville
• Israel LaFleur Bridge (Interstate 210), Lake Charles
• Horace Wilkinson Bridge (Interstate 10), Baton Rouge
• Hale Boggs Bridge, Luling
• Crescent City Connection, New Orleans
• Veterans Memorial Bridge, Gramercy

These bridges were built before new guidelines were put in place in 1991.

Officials with the Louisiana Department of Transporation and Development are still in the process of trying to get a widening project on the I-10 Bridge in Baton Rouge, as you can see in this video:

In a WBRZ report, the analysis suggests Louisiana DOTD

assess the eight bridges and let the NTSB if the probability of collapse is above a standard set by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials.