State Senator Updates City Council on Jimmie Davis Bridge

At this afternoon's Bossier City Council meeting, State Senator Barrow Peacock shared the latest on construction for the new Jimmie Davis Bridge.

Peacock said the legislature amended language in the capital outlay bill so that the money set aside for rehabbing the bridge could also be used toward constructing a new, four-lane bridge.

"Through the process of working with the mayor, NL-COG [Northwest Louisiana Council on Governments], with Mayor Tyler in Shreveport, with the governor's office, with DOTD, that money was there to where now, the money that was dedicated for the rehab can be used to do the engineering and design work for the new bridge," Peacock said. "It doesn't fully fund it, but my hope is that with the roughly $23-million that the state had to rehab, that could be for the 20% (federal) match."

Peacock said the biggest step was the environmental assessment, which has been done. He said based on the results of that, a brand-new bridge is what our area needs.

"That's really what, long-term, this community needs is a four-lane bridge with pedestrian crossing, bike path," he said. "With the Teague Parkway, with Clyde Fant, it's a gateway to our community."

He said in his discussions with Louisiana DoTD, he's asked that it design something we can all be proud of. Mayor Lo Walker did have some concerns about the time frame for this new bridge. He had been hearing it could be eight to 10 years before we see any construction.

Peacock said we need our congressional and local delegations, as well as the state, for this to happen. He said that's too long, but he is seeing things happening within DoTD. He said the next step is engineering and design plans.