Ariel Lynn Guidry
November 11, 2008
Southern Smith
November 13, 2008
The “Future Corridor I-49” signs are up, but will the 150 miles of U.S. Hwy. 90 between New Orleans and Lafayette really be converted into an interstate highway?
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal last week appointed 21 officials and other members to the Interstate 49 South Feasibility and Funding Task Force, five of them from the Tri-parish area.
The task force-created under former Gov. Mike Foster as the “Interstate 49 South Project Task Force” and reestablished under his successor Gov. Kathleen Blanco-mostly works to find funding for the project and to gauge public support.
Converting U.S. Hwy. 90 into an interstate will cost many billions of dollars. The stretch from Bayou Lafourche to New Orleans alone is expected to cost $4 billion. The price is increased because the road would be elevated much of the way.
More billions would have to go toward elevating sections in the Lafayette area.
Around 47 miles of U.S. 90 along the proposed corridor are already up to interstate highway standards. The 25-mile stretch from Morgan City to Houma was upgraded in 1999 at a cost of $300 million.
Jindal’s executive order reestablishing the task force states that the U.S. 90 corridor is an important link to oil and gas operations in the central Gulf and to waterborne shipping, as well as to the petro-chemical industry on the Mississippi River.
The order also states that 36 percent of the state’s population lives in the vicinity of the corridor.
The task force has to submit a report to the governor and to the state Legislature addressing funding and public support issues by March 2009. The task force also has to provide a similar report to the governor by March 2010 which will then be submitted to the state’s Congressional delegation.
Members of the task force include the governor; the secretary of the state Department of Transportation and Development; the chairs of the committees on Transportation, Highways, and Public Works in the House and Senate; the state’s federal highway administrator, and other representatives from business, government and communities along the corridor.
Appointees from the Tri-parishes are Louis Ratcliff, mayor of Berwick; Charlotte Randolph, Lafourche Parish president; Kenneth Wood Sr., retired owner of K&B Machine Works in Houma; Raymond Harris, mayor of Franklin, and Craig Webre, Lafourche Parish sheriff.
Ratcliff, Harris and Webre were appointed as members representing communities along the corridor.
Randolph represents the Houma-Thibodaux Metropolitan Planning Commission. Wood represents businesses in south Louisiana.
“The main thing is getting money from the feds,” Ratcliff said. “We need it for hurricane evacuation. It will be a tough battle, but the governor is going the right way.”
Gov. Bobby Jindal named 21 members of the Interstate 49 Feasibility and Funding Task Force, five of whom hail from the Tri-parish area. The task force begins its work with the hopes of finding federal funding to finally connect south Louisiana to the state’s interstate system. * Photo by KYLE CARRIER
