[5] Before the bridge was built, U.S. 90 traffic crossed the Calcasieu River over a draw bridge located by the Port of Lake Charles on Shell Beach Drive, which runs around the south side of the lake.
[7] It was reported in March 2017[8] that the sufficiency rating has dropped to 6.6 out of 100[9] The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (LA DOTD) initiated a proposed project to replace the bridge in 1999.
[11] The I-35W Mississippi River bridge had a sufficiency rating of 50 in 2005, was listed again as "structurally deficient" and in possible need of replacement, and had ongoing repairs to include overlay, lighting, and guardrails, before falling in August 2007.
The bridge is listed as currently being 6,617 feet (1 1/4 mile) length with a finished grade of 152.10" elevation.
There are no shoulders, no turn-around in case of accidents, and an exposed elevated walk-way on either side that also contributes to the bridge being obsolete.
[12] In June 2011, the Louisiana DOTD began a $5.7 million repair project (State Proj.
Safety and structural repairs included replacing 48 girder pins, and the work was finished by December 22, 2012.
Lant used 5,286 pairs of crossed decorative cast iron pistols placed on the bridge railing, reportedly in homage to pirate history and legends of Jean LaFitte, being the name he preferred, and 50 to 60 pairs have been damaged or determined to be missing.
[15][16] The original castings were done by John Lester Boone Foundry Works of Lawtell, Louisiana.
Missing/stolen pistols were recast by an Alabama foundry in the late 1980s and again in the 2000s during major overhauls of the bridge.
[17] A state official in Scott, Louisiana stated in 1992 to a Boone descendant that so many people would walk up the thin sidewalks of the bridge at night to chip out and take home the crossed pistols as mantel pieces, that the ornaments had to be replaced to prevent the handrails from collapsing.
This made the project on hold[22] until 2024 when a plan was approved that would include tolls, with especially high prices for trucks.
Four alternates, that use two of the four bridge concepts, differ depending on if one-way or two-way service roads are chosen.
Adaptive Reuse of the bridge will also provide a key pedestrian access from the cities of Lake Charles and Westlake while drawing tourists to the area, promoting economic growth and health and wellness for locals.
While the bridge is no longer suitable for interstate traffic, it is possible to convert it to pedestrian use without significant economic investment.
The Save Our Bridge effort is promoting the funding of an engineering study to determine the feasibility of preservation and pedestrian use as well as providing a conceptual design.
[28] The approved contract is for a $2.1B Calcasieu River bridge and supporting roadway from the I-210/I-10 east junction to the I-10/I-210 west.
[36] The new bridge was dubbed "Alternative 5G", or State Project Number: H.003931, that was included in the December 2, 2020, DOTD fact sheet, has been chosen.
[37] Calcasieu Bridge Partners Consortium consist of a joint venture of Plenary Americas US Holdings, Inc., Sacyr Infrastructure USA LLC, and Acciona Concesiones S.L.
There were instances of observation of a pair of bald eagles and aerie, American white pelicans, Belted kingfisher, Downy woodpecker, Northern flicker, Northern cardinal, Little brown skink, Red-eared slider, gray squirrels, nine-banded armadillos, and feral hogs.