Survey for proposed new Mississippi River Bridge at St. Francisville

St. Francisville-New Roads, Louisiana, Route LA 10
Client: Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development

If you want to experience antebellum architecture and the best of Creole culture, you can’t do better than visiting West Feliciana or Pointe Coupee parishes, which bracket the Mississippi River just up from Baton Rouge. Of course, once you got there you would have a hard time seeing all the sights. Every time you wanted to go from one bank of the Mississippi to the other, you would have to wait for the St. Francisville-New Roads Ferry. It’s the only way to cross this 30-mile stretch of river.

The state proposed replacing the ferry with a bridge in the 1980s when it began its Transportation Infrastructure Model for Economic Development. With some assistance from ABMB surveyors, the state now has a route for this $244 million project which is vital to the economic development of the area.

ABMB conducted the topographic and property survey for 12.3 miles of new highway and bridge that ultimately became known as “Alternate F.”  This was no easy job, especially by Louisiana standards where “flat” is considered a given. Alternate F crosses the river south of St. Francisville, avoiding the town’s historical district and wildlife habitat in the Tunica Swamp.

It does go through the Tunica Hills, which are known for their steep ravines. Undeterred, ABMB surveyors used GPS and conventional surveying to provide topographic maps, right-of-way maps, and drainage maps

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