The Linwood Avenue Bridge in Shreveport, Louisiana. Photo: Darren Svan / The Center Square
By Darren Svan | The Center Square
The project to reopen Shreveport’s Linwood Avenue Bridge – a key city corridor – has been held up due to unfinished engineering design work and the need for railroad approval, rather than a shortage of funding.
The project design is about a third to halfway complete and railroad officials will not give final approval until they see a full plan, city engineer David Smith told the City Council last month.
“We didn't want to go too far – between 30% and 60% – without getting some comfortable feeling from the railroad that they would be okay with a maintenance rehab project,” Smith said at that meeting.
The Louisiana Department of Transportation closed the bridge in 2022 due to structural issues that made it unsafe for public use. It’s considered a main north-south corridor, connecting commercial and residential areas near Interstate 20.
The bridge spans freight rail lines and rail yard tracks owned and operated by the railroad. Businesses and buildings near the bridge closure appear vacant and some have fallen into disrepair.
The current $6-7 million plan to rehab the bridge was developed to reduce expenses and expedite reopening. Full replacement is estimated to cost $40 million, according to a city document.
Four years after it was closed, plans to repair it aren’t done and a city document says construction won’t start until late 2027. The project manager is listed as COS Engineering while the designer is Forte and Tablada.
Shreveport Mayor Tom Arceneaux told KSLA News last year to expect construction to start in late 2025 or no later than the spring of 2026.
Council member Jim Taliaferro asked for a project timeline, because “obviously things are not progressing as fast as we think they should.”
Smith said, “It's just been difficult. We're really in a hard place between needing a replacement but not being able to afford it, and then finding something that we can do to open it up for 10-plus years and satisfy the railroad as well.”
Fresh off what he describes as a funding-rich legislative session for Caddo and Bossier parishes, Democratic State Rep. Steven Jackson expressed disappointment.
“They have the cash right now to move that project along but they have not signed a contract on it,” Jackson told The Center Square this week.
Voters approved $3.5 million as part of the city bond proposition that passed in 2024; then lawmakers appropriated $3.5 million in 2025 and another $1.5 million this year, according to Tom Dark, city administrator.
“We’ve given you money but y'all haven’t even started the design needed,” Jackson said on Tuesday.
It’s unclear if the city has tapped into the capital outlay funds Jackson referenced. Deputy Director Stephen Terese was unavailable for comment prior to publication.
According to Smith, the company designing those repairs is working on it now but he was unable to say when it would be completed. Smith did not respond to The Center Square’s request for an interview.
“We've only been in design for maybe less than a year now, but we did spend a good six months of back and forth with the railroad on their precise requirements and what we could afford,” Smith said at the June meeting. “We're just looking for design plans to be approved by the railroad, or to come to some kind of an agreement.”