08/28/2026
🌉Kerner Bridge Update — Nearly a Year Ahead of Schedule!
Great news for the communities of Jean Lafitte and Barataria! Construction on the new Victor Kerner Bridge continues to make tremendous progress, with the latest project schedule estimating completion in September 2027 — almost a full year ahead of schedule.
“A tremendous thank you to Representative Tim Kerner Sr., whose years of persistence and determination made this bridge a reality for our community. We are thrilled to see it nearing completion nearly a year ahead of schedule!”
— Mayor Yvette Crain, Town of Jean Lafitte
🌉Bridge Update from Rep. Tim Kerner Sr.
Update from Rep. Tim Kerner
Construction on the new Victor Kerner Bridge continues to progress, and the latest project schedule now estimates completion in September 2027, almost a year ahead of schedule.
That is tremendous news for the people of Barataria and Lafitte. After the long road it took to reach this point, it also means a great deal to me personally.
In a state with thousands of outdated bridges competing for limited funding, a small community like ours was never going to automatically rise to the top of the list. It was a battle every step of the way.
The history of this project began long before Hurricane Ida. My father, Leo E. Kerner Jr., fought for this bridge because he understood how vital that crossing was to our community. During my years as Mayor, we continued that effort and worked toward securing a permanent replacement.
In the 1990s, with help from Garret Graves, who was working for Congressman Billy Tauzin, we secured a $5 million federal appropriation for an environmental assessment of the bridge. That was the first real, measurable step towards a formal replacement.
We later completed an economic-benefit study in an effort to obtain funding through the federal Truman-Hobbs program. That funding did not materialize, but we kept working.
In October 2011, following a meeting with DOTD, the department confirmed in writing that $60 million we lobbied Congress for was approved, and the Bridge Replacement Plan had been approved, along with a required state match. At that time, construction was tentatively scheduled to be let during the 2014–2015 state fiscal year.
Unfortunately, that date came and went, and the funding ultimately did not remain available to the project.
Meanwhile, the bridge continued through years of engineering, environmental and historic-preservation requirements, agreements, and design work. By 2015, the plans were 30% complete. By August 2018, they had reached 60%, but the estimated construction cost had climbed to roughly $90 million.
That created another major obstacle. The original project was no longer financially workable for the state, so we had to go back to the drawing board, redesign it, and eventually divide it into phases.
The hardest part was never convincing anyone that the bridge was needed. It was keeping the funding and commitment in place long enough to get it built. As Mayor, I watched commitments be made, funding identified, and construction dates established, only to see them change or fall away at the last minute.
But we never stopped pushing.
One of the reasons I ran for State Representative was to get this bridge built and prevent another last-minute setback. As Mayor, I could continue advocating for it, but I wanted a seat at the table where state funding decisions were being made so I could help ensure that the commitment to our community was honored.
In August 2019, DOTD Secretary Shawn Wilson told us the department was “clear on the path” to a replacement bridge and provided a July 2022 letting date. After entering the Legislature, we were able to turn up the heat at the state level, where I brought the project directly before DOTD during a March 2020 House Appropriations Committee hearing and received a formal public commitment that the bridge would not only move forward, but be fast tracked. I took that opportunity to push them to formally state it to all the committee members and the public so no last minute move in funding would cause a delay.
By August 2021, DOTD was holding its public meeting on the permanent replacement. Only weeks later, Hurricane Ida struck. A loose vessel severely damaged the existing bridge and took it out of service, requiring the temporary crossing that keeps our community connected today.
Hurricane Ida made the need more urgent, but it did not begin this project. When the storm arrived, a permanent replacement had already been in development for decades. Years of environmental work, engineering, planning, and design were already in place.
We fought to ensure that Ida would not cause another delay, but instead bring greater urgency to completing the permanent replacement. The project was divided into phases so construction of the bridge itself could begin more quickly, and the $55.9 million first phase broke ground in February 2023.
Today, construction is progressing extremely well. Boh Bros. and the men building this bridge deserve tremendous credit for moving the project ahead of its original schedule.
Once completed, the new bridge will provide more feet of vertical clearance while closed, reducing the number of times it must open for marine traffic. It will also include a hybrid-driven swing system and a natural-gas-powered generator that will allow it to operate following a storm or power outage. Most importantly, it will provide a safer and more dependable connection for the people of Barataria and Lafitte while restoring navigation through Bayou Barataria.
A project of this size is never the work of one person. I am sincerely grateful to Secretary Shawn Wilson for helping move it into construction; Governor Jeff Landry and the current DOTD team for seeing it through; our federal partners; the Town officials; the engineers; Boh Bros.; town staff, and my legislative assistant Nicole.
I am especially grateful to the residents of Barataria and Lafitte for their patience, their advocacy, and their determination through years of uncertainty and inconvenience.
The goal was always to make sure our community received the safe, reliable bridge it deserved. Seeing that bridge finally becoming a reality, and ahead of schedule, is deeply meaningful after so many years of fighting for it.
What began as a promise we refused to let be forgotten will soon become a bridge our people can depend upon for generations.
