City strikes deal with state to take over roads, pay for Crescent City Connection lighting

The Crescent City Connection could light up the New Orleans skyline by Super Bowl 2025 thanks to a deal approved by the City Council on Thursday.

Under the agreement, the city will take ownership of a key stretch of Hayne Boulevard in New Orleans East to enhance its planned Lincoln Beach redevelopment project. In return, the state will pay the city's share of an LED lighting project on the Crescent City Connection, which has been dark since Hurricane Ida knocked out the old bulbs more than two years ago.

Originally, the $16 million lighting project was to be split by the city and state. Officials hope the bridge will be fully illuminated by February 2025, when New Orleans hosts the Super Bowl.

The city’s $8 million portion will come from a "road transfer credit," or money the state gives to local jurisdictions that agree to take ownership of public roads. The state owns 27% of Louisiana’s public roadways, compared to a national average of 19%, according to the Department of Transportation and Development. State officials are aiming to get closer to the national average by working out these kinds of deals with local jurisdictions.

City officials say taking ownership of about seven miles of La. 47 and La. 428 is key to the Lincoln Beach redevelopment because the project involves designing a new pedestrian walkway across the busy highway and railroad tracks running alongside it. Eliminating the need to work with the state on traffic studies and “some serious engineering tasks” will make for a smoother project, said Joe Threat, the city’s infrastructure chief.

“It might take DOTD a year or two to get the road studies done, where we can just take that out of the picture,” Threat said, referring to the state Department of Transportation and Development.

There is no timeframe for the redevelopment of Lincoln Beach, which was once a thriving amusement park reserved for Black residents during segregation. Mayor LaToya Cantrell has set aside $25 million for the project and last month announced the hiring of a master developer.

The final project is years away, but city officials hope to offer a limited opening for public access early next year.

The Crescent City Connection lighting, meanwhile, was a hot topic long before Hurricane Ida. The lights had fallen into disrepair after 2013, when voters killed a bridge toll that had been used to maintain them. Bridge boosters have said the lighting is as essential to the New Orleans skyline as the bridge itself.

Using the road transfer credit on bridge lighting may force the city to scramble to find money on future road maintenance, but the state has agreed to pay for upgrades to both roadways as part of the deal.

Repairs to nearly seven miles of La. 47 will include new paving, patching and panel replacement. That includes all portions of the route where it is known as Hayne Boulevard and Paris Avenue. Similar repairs are planned for a half-mile stretch of La. 428 that includes Nunez Street and Verret Street in Algiers.