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Intracoastal Bridge repairs causing headaches for commuters

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WEST BATON ROUGE PARISH - The Intracoastal Waterway Bridge in West Baton Rouge gets 50,000 commuters to and from I-10 every day.

"It is just as vital as really any bridge around here," District 17 Senator Rick Ward said.

But the nearly 60-year-old bridge is in dire need of a replacement. Every year it gets an 'F' from a nationally recognized rating agency.

"Its always undergoing some type of repair it seems like," Ward said.

Since a whole new bridge is not feasible, DOTD is replacing 57 joints on both spans to extend its life.

"In an effort to not have to close down the lanes while they work to repair underneath, they had to put the metal plates," Ward said.

And those plates are causing a commotion.

"A lot of us that drive over them every day have started to notice them. You can't not notice them when you drive over them."

Including Ronda Boudreaux and Pete Troulliet.

"That little bridge is starting to be a hassle because of the flat things on the bottom, because they act like a speed bump. If you hit them just right it will tear your front end off," Troulliet said.

They hate going over them so much, they go out of their way just to avoid them.

"We try to avoid the right lane. So we take the left lane, then make a u-turn and go up the bridge," he said.

Senator Ward says DOTD will continue to add and remove these plates along the bridge as they move to replace each joint underneath by early July.

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