For as long as Ruben Tapia can remember, a pair of illuminated bridges has been a staple of New Orleans' nighttime skyline.
Tapia crossed the Crescent City Connection, the two bridges that connect New Orleans' West Bank and Central Business District, every day when he commuted to his job at the Louisiana Department of Health.
But since Hurricane Ida, the bridges have sat dark. Tapia, 73, reached out to Curious Louisiana to find out why the lights on the iconic bridges have yet to turn back on.
"These two bridges are major landmarks to our beloved city," he wrote. "What happened?"
Why are the bridges dark?
There's a short story and a long story of what turned the Crescent City Connection's lights off.
The short story is that when Hurricane Ida hit in 2021, the electrical system surged, making many of the bridge's bulbs defunct. Any replacement bulbs shorted right away, and an overhaul of the entire electrical system became the only solution.
But there's a much longer history of the lights that line the bridges that involves tolls, a ballot measure, a judge and another ballot measure.
Louisiana first imposed tolls to drive across the bridge in 1958, when the Greater New Orleans bridge was built. Tolls were removed in 1964, once the state paid off its construction costs.
Tolls made a comeback in 1989 when the city needed to pay for the second bridge and charged $1 for cars to cross the river. The two bridges together were renamed the Crescent City Connection. These tolls expired in 2012.
But on Nov. 6, 2012, a ballot measure proposed the toll's 20-year extension.
Some voters pushed for the tolls, saying they provided a consistent source of revenue for the bridge's upkeep. Others said tolls placed an unfair burden on commuters.
The pro-toll group prevailed by a slim 16-vote margin out of 308,000 votes. Then, a Baton Rouge judge found that certain West Bank residents were denied the right to vote on the issue. He threw out the results and the tolls were lifted.
In a repeat referendum, a whopping 78% of voters rejected the tolls.
Tapia recalls voting against the tolls. But if he was faced with that choice again, he would vote to reinstate them.
“Doing away with the toll, the whole thing fell apart," he said.
Once the toll was eliminated, DOTD had sufficient leftover funds to maintain the decaying light system.
Then came Hurricane Ida, and the bridges went dark.
New plans
State officials announced in March that they contracted a Pennsylvania-based firm to design a new LED lighting system to light up the bridges again.
DOTD officials said they're aiming for the bridges to be illuminated by the end of next year. But they're still missing one thing: the $16.5 million they need to actually build the lighting system.
A DOTD spokesperson said the agency is working with New Orleans to find a funding source.
LED lights are more durable and use less energy than traditional lighting systems, which officials hope will make them more protected against damage from storms.
"It will be a more modern system so it will be more robust," a DOTD spokesperson said.
DOTD rendering of the Crescent City Connection with new, programmable lights.
Luckily for Crescent City Connection commuters, a new toll is not in the works. New Orleans & Co., a private tourism marketing association, has agreed to foot the bill to maintain the lights.
DOTD hopes to complete the project by the end of 2024 — in time for the Superdome to host Super Bowl LIX in February 2025.
"Lighting [the bridges] up, it gives you hope for the city," Tapia said. "Since everything is going bad in New Orleans, with the crime, potholes, all this dysfunction going on, I think it's important that some of the iconic sites of New Orleans be bright and visible.”