Eight bridges in Louisiana deemed ‘at risk’ by national transportation board

BATON ROUGE, La. (Louisiana First)- Louisiana is one of the 19 states that the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is asking to look closely into certain bridges for assessments.

After the Key Bridge in Baltimore collapsed due to a boat crashing into it, the board has revealed 68 major bridges are in need of a closer look in case some have the same fate. Eight of those bridges are in Louisiana.

“There are mitigating factors in place to ensure the safest possible situation should one of our bridges be hit,” said DOTD Spokesperson Rodney Mallot.

The majority of the bridges on the list are located in New Orleans and Baton Rouge. According to the report, the risk factor ranges from typical conditions to critical.

Mallot says they have specific procedures for inspections.

“We have fender systems, we have dolphin systems, all to protect the piers on the bridges in the river,” he said.

Although this isn’t a new routine, Mallot said it’s not uncommon for boats to hit bridges, most recently with the Gross Tete bridge and the Sunshine Bridge in Donaldsonville. But in situations like those, there are steps in place.

“They have to report it to the Coast Guard,” said Mallot. “They call us. We go out and investigate and inspect to see if we need to make repairs and if we do need to make repairs, 9 times out of 10, it’s to the fender system.”

Mallot said special crews will work to make sure all bridges are up to par.

“They will look at those bridges and determine some mitigation factors that are feasible and get back with the folks who issued that report,” he said.

Here’s a list of the eight bridges:

• Huey P. Long Bridge 
• Greater New Orleans Bridge
• Israel LaFleur Bridge
• Crescent City Connection Bridge 
• Hale Boggs Bridge
• Horace Wilkinson Bridge
• Veterans Memorial Bridge 
• Sunshine Bridge

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