US Hwy 90 Pearl River Bridge Closure: What You Need to Know

Welcome back to 504 Road Trips! There's no road  trip today, but I'm here to discuss the closure   of US Highway 90 across the Louisiana Mississippi  State Line. The picture you see here, taken on one   of our very early road trips, is the US-90 bridge  over the Pearl River, connecting the two states.   This has long been the scenic route out to the  Mississippi Gulf Coast for many New Orleanians,   and it's a good way to avoid the Interstate.  However, on May 24, 2022, inspectors with   the Louisiana Department of Transportation  and Development failed a bridge inspection,   and the highway was closed indefinitely. In  an August 30th article from WVUE New Orleans,   the DOTD found that "deterioration of the steel  truss had reached a point that it was no longer   safe for drivers." Meanwhile, "Inspectors  closed four other bridges along the same   stretch of highway due to similar structrual  deficiencies." WVUE interviewed Gary Gilmore,   a boat captain at Cajun Encounters, a swamp  tour company located on Highway 90 in Slidell,   just before the West Pearl River Bridge, the  westernmost of the five closed bridges. Businesses   along US-90 between Slidell and Pearlington are  the hardest hit because they attract customers   from both sides of the state line, and now, what  would normally be a short drive is a lengthy   trek. Gilmore is quoted as saying "Typically on a  day like this, we should be running eight boats,   nine boats. We're running two. So we're cutting  down from 200 people per tour to about 40."   "A spokesperson for DOTD said that all bridges  along this route are more than 90 years old."   "This stretch of US-90 helps connect Slidell  to Pearlington, Mississippi, but with the   bridge closures, drivers are forced to travel  around, in some cases tripling travel time".   Illustrated on the map is a simple trip from the  south part of Slidell to Pearlington, Mississippi,   which would normally be a 4 mile drive. US-90  is in green, I-10 in red, and the only other   possible way around, should I-10 be jammed up,  is a convoluted trip up into Mississippi in blue,   topping out at over 57 miles. At one time, there  was a shortcut through through the NASA Stennis   facility, but that's long been shut down to  civilians. And there's no reasonable way to   get between coastal Louisiana and Mississippi  without getting onto an Interstate.   The article continues "DOTD said there is no  funding allocated to replace the closed bridges   along US 90. The costs to replace all the bridges  along Hwy 90 is estimated to be more than $250   million. So for now, this portion of Hwy 90 will  remain closed for an undetermined amount of time,   and drivers will have to go around." On November 18, 2022, Nola.com ran an   article stating that "The Louisiana Department  of Transportation and Development has proposed   replacing the deteriorating drawbridge over  hte West Peral River on U.S. 90. But the   bidding period won't even open until 2025."  "The agency estimates the cost for replacing   the West Pearl Bridge, and three others along  the same stretch of U.S. 90 at $60 million to   $95 million." Spokesperson Brandie Bordelon was  quoted as saying "All four bridges need to be   replaced before this coridor can reopen". So the cost of the project has gone down since   the August article, which is promising. The article continues "The latest traffic   count in the area, 2021, showed  around 3,300 vehicles per day".   I would venture to guess that the traffic count is  seasonal. In my experience, during the wintertime,   you can drive from New Orleans East to Highway  607 in Mississippi and only see a handful of cars,   but during the summer, when people are at their  Lake Catherine camps, and traveling back and forth   from the coast, there's a lot more traffic. The DOTD has proposed replacing the drawbridge,   and the article doesn't specify which bridge, as  the West Pearl River and the main channel of the   Pearl both have vertical lift drawbridges.  But in conjunction with the Coast Guard,   a "comment period was opened in October for input  on a new bridge's proposed clearance height.   Th agency proposes replacing the drawbridge  with a fixed bridge that would have 12-foot   clearance above water, a decrease of 6 feet  from the current drawbridge when closed".   What this means for marine traffic is  that the waterway will be less passable   with the new fixed bridge than it is now when the  drawbridge is in the down position. "When opened,   the current bridge has a vertical  lift span of 110 feet. Horizontally,   the proposal calls for a narrow navigational  clearance for boaters, decreasing from 90 to   60 feet. The article quotes Jason Jaworski of  the town of Pearl River, saying "A fixed bridge   with only a 12-foot clearance is pretty much going  to block the river off from any kind of barge or   houseboat traffic or anything of any size". And my favorite part of the article, and the   very reason I'm covering this is "Long before  I-10 was built and became the preferred route,   generations of New Orleanians used U.S. 90 to  get from the city to the Mississippi Gulf Coast,   and points farther east." This has always  been my preferred route, with multiple trips   each year between New Orleans and the Coast for  my entire life, and unless I'm in a big rush,   I take Highway 90 at least one way. I-10 in  Mississippi has only been complete since 1982,   and my childhood trips to the coast  date back several years before that.   But we back up to the most important point  in this article here, that US-90 "becomes   a vital alternative when Interstate 10 at  the Louisiana-Mississippi line is shut down,   which has happened several times recently." This leads us to a Biloxi Sun Herald Article,   dated November 29, that reads "Interstate 10, a  highway that spans from Florida to California,   is driven by hundreds of thousands of  people every day across the U.S.   "But on the Mississippi Coast, it's also  the site of many accidents, traffic snarls,   and road closures--and it's recently gotten  so much attention that one portion of the   interstate in Hancock County is dubbed a  'death trap' by some local commuters.   The portion of I-10 at the Mississippi-Louisiana  state line has made headlines multiple times   over the last year, particularly after  a semi-truck hauling BMWs crashed on the   bridge that connects Hancock County  to St. Tammany Parish in January.   "The fiery wreck closed both lanes of the bridge  for hours, then one lane of the bridge was closed   for months for repairs, causing daily traffic  delays for hours. In an almost identical spot   earlier this month, another 18-wheeler caught  fire after crashing into the bridge railing.   "Another incident in March saw a four car,  one eighteen-wheeler pileup that sent six   people to the hospital, one of which had  to be evacuated by a medical helicopter.   "Traffic snarls at the state line were made  worse when the West Pearl River bridge closed   for repairs in Louisiana. Commuters could  often take the scenic route on U.S. 90   through Pearlington and into Louisiana, but  the bridge closure makes that impossible.   "The high volume of traffic that moves through the  interstate every day may be a contributing factor   to these traffic accidnts, officials with the  Mississippi Department of Transportation said."   What this article fails to mention is that  the I-10 bridge over the Pearl River is aging   and substandard. Built in 1970, the bridge at  the state line is two lanes, like all of I-10   between the I-10/12/59 split and the Jourdan  River, but it doesn't have the required 3 1/2   foot shoulders on each side that are required of  any existing bridge over 200 feet in length.   Back to the article, "Though many commuters  who travel this route daily have not been in   an accident themselves, everyone has heard  of the I-10 pile-ups and 18 wheeler fires   that have made headlines this year. "'Specifically on that bridge going into   Louisiana, it's all been 18 wheelers,' said Brian  Velasquez, a Mississippi resident who drives I-10   to Slidell every day on the way to work. "'I tell all my friends that I-10 is a   death trap because there's always something  happening on I-10. I live in Diamondhead,   and from Diamondhead to the state line there's  always something, at least twice a month."   Another commuter, Wesley Roy commented  "When you go up on the bridge,   there's this narrowing effect that people have  because the shoulder widths are very thin,   so people slow down, and if someone changes  their speed that's where the accident happpens,   right before you get on the bridge." The article continues "MDOT has plans in   the works that they say will make I-10 safer in  Hancock County. There's a 2023 project scheduled   to make median improvements from the Louisiana  state line to Mississippi 603." End quote   This fails to address the problem  with the bridge over the Pearl River,   which I assume would have to be a joint  project between MDOT and Louisiana DOTD.   So, I hope this outlines the huge problem the  closure of US-90 has created, and the lack of   options for detours. We hope to see Highway 90  opened again sooner, rather than later, and of   course, as soon as that happens, we'll be there  to film whatever improvements they've made.   Thanks for watching. If you liked this video,  please give us a thumbs-up, post a comment,   subscribe, share and follow us on social  media, and join us for our next 504 Road Trip!