Louisiana
Louisiana wants to give away Highway 90 bridges to be repurposed
PEARLINGTON, Ms. (WVUE) – Residents in a small Mississippi community believe their town is dying a slow death as a major artery connecting Louisiana and Mississippi remains closed for more than two years, and the state in charge of the closed road says it’s seeking potential takers for historic yet unnavigable bridges.
Highway 90, which serves as an eastbound exit from New Orleans to the Mississippi Gulf Coast, has been shuttered since May 2022 when inspections found four bridges to be structurally unsafe for drivers.
Pearlington, Mississippi sits on the edge of the state line, along the thoroughfare where cars used to pass from the other side of the water on a daily basis.
“Pearlington is a small town of about 1,000 families, and it is reducing every day,” said Michael Mavenyengwa, owner of the Pearlington Rocket Express.
His business used to function as a gas station and convenience store, but he said he hasn’t been able to afford to keep the pumps running.
“Due to that closure, we have experienced a major loss of business. We have lost maybe 50 to 75 percent of our business,” Mavenyengwa said. “The income we are having, the problems we are having, cannot sustain maintaining the pumps and paying all the bills we need to pay.”
“My business is dying.”
He said Pearlington has many older residents who would often take 90 to the hospital in Slidell.
When accidents on I-10 cause backups or closures of the highway, there is no other way to reach Louisiana or vice versa without traveling to Picayune, Mississippi.
“We feel like we are Americans like everybody else and pay taxes, and we are here trying to survive. It’s where we want to live,” Mavenyengwa said. “We need help here. Because 5 years, 10 years or 2028, maybe this town will be extinct.”
Louisiana is in charge of the bridges, and state and local leaders have often called for an expedited replacement.
But the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD) said the replacement would cost over $300 million, and the state currently has a backlog of road repairs and infrastructure upgrades totaling more than $18 billion.
The state said it is seeking proposals for the removal of four bridges, all built in the 1930s: West Pearl River Bridge, West Middle Pearl River Bridge, Middle Pearl River Bridge, and East Middle Pearl River Bridge.
Each would cost approximately $520,000 to demolish, which the state will eventually have to do if an entity can’t be found to remove and repurpose the bridges.
“We need to get these bridges removed from our waterways,” said Daniel Gitlin with DOTD. “If they’re not going to be fixed, if they can’t be reconditioned, we cannot just leave them out there in the water, these are protected environmental waters.”
Gitlin said DOTD is currently in the environmental studies phase of the bridge replacement project.
Latest estimates put the replacement of the bridges sometime in 2028, but it’s unclear whether the state remains on that timeline still.
“This may be an opportunity for local governments, maybe St. Tammany, or some of the cities down there, to say, ‘Hey, we would like to relocate this to a public park,’” Gitlin said. “The state will not only give the bridges away, but they will pay for the cost of basically what it would take.”
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DOTD closes multiple bridges in the New Orleans region
Pearl River bridge closures choking traffic, businesses east of New Orleans
For Pearlington residents, a fix may be awhile away. Gitlin said patch repairs to the bridges, which are more than 90 years old, would only extend their lifespan by a year or two.
Marine traffic has to be considered in the replacement, and so the ideal scenario would be one long spanning bridge over the water, he said.
But it comes down to securing the funding to do so.
“When you’re talking about state funding and you’re talking about groups like the transportation committees in Baton Rouge, they’re going to be looking at the long-term effect of how we spend our money and what we can do for the community,” Gitlin said.
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A state lawmaker whose district includes Iberville and nine other parishes will lead the way on the drawing of a new congressional map when the committee convenes Friday.
Sen. Caleb Kleinpeter, R-Port Allen, will chair the hearings to draw a new congressional district map. He currently serves as chairman of the U.S. Senate and Governmental Affairs Committee.
On Wednesday, Kleinpeter said he has not worked on any maps. He is letting the committee members and the members of the Senate work on this with staff.
The move will come nine days after the U.S. Supreme Court on a 6-3 vote ruled one of Louisiana’s two majority-Black U.S. House districts unconstitutional.
“We can’t base it on race anymore, so the minority party is the Democrats,” he said. “The Democrats have migrated away from the New Orléans area, so we’re looking at Democrats versus Republicans, so the minority party — the Democrats — which means it’s more favored toward Baton Rouge.”
The move would work in favor of incumbent 6th District Congressman Cleo Fields, who was a candidate for the race which Gov. Jeff Lndry suspended in the wake of the Supreme Court decision.
The ruling stemmed from Louisiana vs. Callais – a consolidation of Robinson vs. Callais – that centered on racial gerrymandering and redistricting in the state of Louisiana following the 2020 United States census. The lead plaintiff, Phillip “Bert” Callais, is a resident of Brusly.
The Supreme Court vote came despite the African American population comprising nearly one-third of the state’s population.
According to the 2020 Census, the Black or African American population in Louisiana was approximately 1,464,023,representing 31.4%of the state’s total population. Louisiana has one of the highest percentages of Black residents in the United States, ranking second behind Mississippi.
The Baton Rouge district would likely be the area to undergo the remap, he said.
It amounts to an intricate balancing act.
“What far-right Republicans don’t understand is that with Congress maps, you have to be within 776, 280 votes – within 50 votes of the other districts,” Kleinpeter said. “It’s not like our legislative maps where you can be off by thousands … when you start changing a precinct, it can run down a rabbit hole chasing this precinct over here and over there.
“We can easily draw a really strong nine Republican and one strong Democrat, so if you start watering districts down you could wind up with a 4-2 map.”
Republicans currently have a two-vote super majority vote.
“But some Republican districts are strong and others are weak,” Kleinpeter said. “If you take 58 percent Democrats and put them in Republican districts, you could end up losing Republicans.
“Drawing congress maps is very difficult – you have the leader of the party, and you have the Speaker of the House you have to protect,” he said. “You don’t want to jeopardize their maps at hole.”
One other issue is looming for the state, Kleinpeter said.
“What people don’t understand is that we will have to do this all over again in five years, after the next census comes out,” he said. “Hopefully we’ll people by that time.”
The 2030 Census will play a key role in the process, but it still requires participation.
“I had plenty of next-door neighbors who didn’t want to fill out their census” he said. “I’m going to push to fill out their census. We miss out on federal money and potentially risk losing a seat. “
Neuty, the iconic Bucktown nutria visits the state capitol, with Myra Lacoste, Denny Lacoste, Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser, Dennis Lacoste Sr., and Louisiana state Senator J. Cameron Henry Jr. Neuty was an orphan, rescued by the Lacostes. In March 2023, LDWF agents attempted to confiscate the illegal pet.
VIDALIA, La. — Louisiana State Police arrested 18-year-old Gregory Steele early Sunday morning on two counts of vehicular homicide, one count of underage operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated, one count vehicular negligent injuring and one count careless operation, according to Concordia Parish Jail records.
Steele, 18, a white male, was arrested in connection with an accident that occurred at approximately 1:54 a.m. on Sunday morning on Minorca Road in Vidalia. Two passengers in the vehicle were killed. Steele and another passenger were able to escape the vehicle.
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