How to pay for I-49 South?

By ZACHARY FITZGERALD
zfitzgerald@daily-review.com
WASHINGTON, D.C. — State Sen. Bret Allain would only be in favor of using tolls to fund the I-49 South project if the people affected get to vote on whether they want tolls while U.S. Sen. David Vitter sees the extension of the federal highway program as important for the project, they said.
Allain, R-Franklin, was in Washington, D.C., today talking with Vitter, R-Metairie, and some of the Louisiana Congressional delegation about where the project stands, he said this morning.
Allain is against raising taxes or doing anything of the sort to pay for the I-49 South project, he said. “The tolls are interesting, but like I’ve said before … I would be in favor of the people deciding if they want a toll or not,” Allain said. “The only way that that happens, as far as I’m concerned, is if it’s a vote of the people in the parishes that would be affected, and they vote to do it to themselves much like any property tax proposition.”
If people are not afforded the opportunity to decide whether they want tolls to have the project completed in a quicker timeframe, then Allain could not be in favor of funding the project in that way, he said.
On Wednesday, Vitter said, “I-49 is a huge transportation priority for me. It’s the single, top Louisiana transportation project in terms of impact if you count I-49 South and North together.” Vitter has been actively involved in the project for years, he said.
“At the federal level, the most important thing we can do is continue the federal highway program and pass a long-term extension not just a band-aid short-term extension before it is otherwise up in May,” Vitter said.
Overpasses at Red Cypress Road in Patterson and at the Calumet Cut are expected to be the next portions of the I-49 South project funded in St. Mary Parish, Allain said.
The overpass at Red Cypress Road should be able to be funded in about two years, Allain said. Another overpass beginning on the east side of the Calumet Cut would likely be the subsequent section to be funded in the parish, he said. After the overpass at Red Cypress Road is funded, construction would take at least two years, Allain said.
Due to the need to make room for local traffic, another bridge is needed connecting La. 182 across the Calumet Cut, Allain said. Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development officials want to install some J-turns to make that section safer in the interim, Allain said. “I’m not a huge fan of J-turns, but I am a fan of saving people’s lives,” Allain said.
Referring to the completion of the entire I-49 South project from Lafayette to New Orleans, Allain said, “At this rate, it’ll all be completed in time to take me to the funeral home.”
Allain is working on opportunities to fund the project with the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development discussing some Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery grants that might be used if legislators can find matching funds, he said. However, funding in the state is “not very good right now and probably for the next couple of years,” Allain said.
Vitter said leaders will have to solve a lot of the need for funding for the I-49 South project at the state level. Last week, Vitter made two significant policy announcements as a candidate for governor, he said. As governor, Vitter would call for a special legislative session immediately after being sworn in focused on spending reform and tax reform including bolstering the transportation trust fund, he said.
Sometime after that first special session in his first term as governor, Vitter would develop with others and propose to legislators and to the public a high priority highway transportation build plan with specific revenues tied to it, he said. That build plan would construct high priority corridors on an expedited basis, Vitter said.