Construction officially gets underway in Lake Charles this afternoon on the new I-10 Calcasieu River Bridge. The $2.3 billion bridge is being built immediately next to the existing bridge that first opened in 1952, predating I-10. Calcasieu Parish Police Jury President Brian Abshire says the bridge is of utmost importance, with 75,000 vehicles passing over it every day.
“I-10 is an integral corridor for commerce in the United States. And without our bridge, it sends things to a screeching halt,” Abshire noted.
Abshire says the new bridge will be a vast improvement over the one that it will be replacing.
“Multiple lanes in both directions, possible biking or walking lanes on either side; I think that’s still being debated,” Abshire said.
The bridge will also have 12-foot-wide shoulders on both sides of the roadway, and it won’t rise as high above the river. Whereas the current bridge takes traffic 152 feet above the river, the apex of the new bridge will be somewhere between 75 and 95 feet.
Abshire says not only will the new bridge be a lot safer than the current one, but it will also hopefully be an economic boost to the City of Lake Charles.
“It’s going to look much better than what we’ve got and, hopefully, entice people to get off the interstate and experience downtown Lake Charles,” Abshire said.
The bridge will be a toll bridge; Abshire says that was the one and only option to get the funding needed for the project. Construction will take seven years, and the bridge will be tolled for 50 years.