Secretary Ladey of the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD) told the Capitol Area Road and Bridge District on Wednesday that the Federal Highway Administration has approved the start of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) environmental assessment for the Mississippi River Bridge South project.

"We're able to announce the start of the environmental assessment process," Secretary Ladey said, marking what DOTD and consultant ATLAS described as a “vital milestone” that allows the agency to begin formal technical studies, agency coordination and public review.

The project team said the EA phase will assess three narrowed-alternative alignments and associated variations for how the new crossing would tie into LA 1 and LA 30. ATLAS project manager Anna Shudry said the work began with roughly 32 initial alternatives and has been winnowed to three: "32 original alternatives. We have it narrowed down."

Why it matters: The NEPA environmental assessment will evaluate impacts to natural and human environments — including traffic, noise, air quality, wetlands, cultural resources and socioeconomic effects — for each alternative and its tie-in options. Christina Bridal, DOTD project manager for the Mississippi River Bridge South Project, said the EA sets the stage for draft and final documents, public review and, if needed, a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) or the off-ramp to a full Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).

DOTD and ATLAS gave a schedule overview: preliminary technical work already completed, community briefings planned for early December, public meetings planned for early next year, and public hearings in mid-to-late next year. Anna Shudry said the EA process has a 12-month regulatory limit once initiated: "Right now, an EA process has a time limit of 12 months. So since we started mid September, right, of this year, we have until mid September of next year, barring no agency hiccups."

The project team emphasized that some technical work — surveys, geotechnical studies, wetlands assessments, Phase I site assessments, preliminary traffic and toll analyses — was completed before the formal EA began. Christina Bridal said that earlier work positions the team to meet the EA schedule if federal and state agencies meet review timelines.

Public involvement and comment: DOTD said agency coordination and federal review timelines can extend beyond the nominal agency-review windows, and told the board it will hold multiple public engagement events. Bridal said two community briefings are planned in December (venues noted as St. Gary Burrell Community Center and the Plaquemines Community Center), draft EA public meetings are expected in Q1, and public hearings in Q2–Q3 depending on agency responses.

Concerns raised in public comment: Several residents and local advocates used the meeting’s public-comment period to oppose an alternative (referred to in materials as E-114) that would pass through Plaquemines Point and the A.E. LeBlanc area in Iberville Parish. Laura Como, a Plaquemines Point landowner, said the A.E. LeBlanc area is an old-growth cypress forest and warned of irreversible loss if the alignment is selected: "Destroying it would be short sighted and irreversible," she said. Other speakers, including Brian Davis, executive director of the Louisiana Trust for Historic Preservation, and multiple landowners, urged DOTD and FHWA to consider cultural and ecological impacts and to treat public comments as substantive input to the EA.

Scope and decision points: ATLAS and DOTD described the EA as an analytical step that can end with a FONSI or, if the assessment finds significant impacts, lead to an EIS. Paul Vaught (DOTD, former project manager) told the board a NEPA-derived alternative could still emerge during the EA if technical findings suggest a different alignment would avoid significant impacts: "There is always the possibility for a NEPA derived alternative... if we were to get to the end of this and find that the alternatives that are before us all have significant impacts... it may be worth bringing in that new alignment and exploring those impacts."

What the board asked: Board members requested the presentation materials be posted publicly; DOTD said it will verify posting and distribute the slide deck that was provided to board members. Board members also pressed DOTD about how tie-ins at LA 1 and LA 30 will be finalized and whether options for tie-in geometry might shift environmental impacts.

Next steps: DOTD advised members and the public to submit formal comments during the community briefings, draft EA public meetings and the public hearings, and noted that comments submitted after the project’s earlier PEL (Planning and Environmental Linkages) document will be incorporated into the EA. "If you show up at the public hearing, if you show up at community meetings, if you show up at the public hearings and you review the draft EA document and the final EA document... it's not a check the box exercise," former DOTD project manager Paul Vaught told attendees.

Ending: DOTD and ATLAS said they will provide schedules and materials to the board and public; DOTD committed to updating the project website and distributing the slide deck shown to the board. The board will receive further quarterly updates as the EA progresses and as the team finalizes technical reports, tie-in geometry, cost estimates and the draft EA.