In February 2023, the American Press’ top story was good news-bad news about the Interstate 10-Calcasieu River bridge.

U.S. Dept. of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg was in Lake Charles to celebrate the $150 million federal grant for the bridge, part of the five-year Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

In the same story, the DOTD announced it was having trouble getting the “private” part of the Public-Private-Partnership, P-3, funding it was seeking for the $2.1 billion project.

The plan, set to expire Feb. 1, 2024, would involve tolls, and it was largely because of these tolls that the plan was rejected by the State Joint Transportation Committee. A delegation of Southwest Louisiana legislators represented the sentiments of the public and of local businesses reliant on truck shipments at that meeting.

At the end of January 2024, the Legislature approved a tolled bridge with Calcasieu Parish Bridge Partners.

The difference in the new plan and the one rejected by the State Joint Transportation Committee a few months earlier were the one-third reduction in commercial/trucker tolls. Plus, the state would receive 14 to 16 percent of the tolling revenue beginning the first year.

Local vehicles will pay 25 cents. That covers “any private vehicle registered in the five-parish area regardless of size,” Donahue said. Privately owned trucks and cars will pay 25 cents. A privately-owned truck pulling a boat or trailer with their four-wheelers will pay 25 cents.

For those who don’t live in Allen, Beauregard, Calcasieu, Cameron or Jeff Davis parishes, the toll-tag rate is $2.50. Without a toll tag, the cost will be $3.75. Autos over 20 feet (the medium truck category) will pay $2.55 and $3.82 respectively. Large trucks will pay $8.25 and $12.36 respectively.

Local vehicles and autos with tags traveling with three people or more will cross the bridge with a 50 percent savings, 13 cents and $1.25 respectively.

The Lake Charles DOTD office said the final design for the bridge is not expected to be complete until 2026, which “largely follows the alternative approved in the environmental document proposed by Calcasieu Bridge Partners in November of 2022.

The bridge will take at least seven years to build. Preliminary work has begun. The first two years, the prep work will be on the approachways. Then the actual bridge construction will begin.