La. 435 Bridge Project Changes Anticipated

Wednesday May 28, 2003

Denise Wagner said she plans to get a front-row seat Monday when the state highway department unveils a redesigned Louisiana 435 bridge replacement project at a public hearing in Abita Springs.

The hearing will begin at 6 p.m. at Abita Springs Town Hall. Highway department officials are expected to show renderings of the revised project, receive comments and answer questions.

Wagner, who lives on the south side of Louisiana 435, northeast of Abita Springs and near the three bridges slated for replacement, led a citizen protest this year after she and other property owners discovered that the original proposal would eat up significant chunks of their front yards.

Using $2.2 million in federal money, the state wants to rip out three flood-prone, 20-foot-wide bridges near the Hillcrest subdivision and replace them with 40-foot-wide bridges. Each would be built three feet higher than the current bridges, which are just a few feet above the normal water level. Two of the bridges cross Abita Creek and the other crosses an unnamed stream.

Wagner and her neighbors protested because the project, as originally designed, would have gobbled up more than 70 feet of Wagner's property and large chunks of land belonging to 15 other property owners.

They argued the state could just as easily acquire necessary rights of way on Louisiana 435's north side, which is undeveloped land owned by the Nature Conservancy.

Initially, a state highway official said the project focused on the south side in order to protect an endangered plant, the quilwort, found on the Conservancy property. However, Wagner and her neighbors convinced highway officials that the plant is just as abundant in the drainage ditches on their side of the highway and would be uprooted by construction.

After Wagner and her neighbors collected hundreds of names on petitions, put up signs along the highway and enlisted the aid of several elected officials, the state pulled back, saying the quilwort was no longer a factor and promising to try to redesign the project.

"We have not seen any revisions. We are very anxious to see what the state has come up with," Wagner said.

Throughout, Wagner and her neighbors have supported the concept of the project. "We just said all along that we think it can be done without taking up so much of our property," Wagner said.

Highway officials have said the redesign could delay the project by about six months; it was to have begun early next year.

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Richard Boyd can be reached at rboyd@timespicayune.com or (985) 898-4816.