[StBernard] Four Lane Highway from block grant

Westley Annis westley at da-parish.com
Mon Feb 27 23:15:44 EST 2006



I had attended the meeting for the Florida Avenue expressway and believe
that the original proposal was part of a master design back in 1927.

The bridge proposed from Paris Rd. to France Rd. funds were appropriated
through a 0.04 cent sales tax on gasoline throughout the state in a master
plan that had roughly 17 road projects. Due to expected increase revenues,
the project came up earlier on the list than anticipated.

The project is approved but if the people of New Orleans and St. Bernard
would not have come to a consensus, the money would have been spent
elsewhere.

My point is that the Florida Avenue extension is and will be needed once St.
Bernard recovers from this disaster. The funds are already there and if the
project were rejected the funds would be spent probably putting lights on
the I-49 Interstate which leads from Lafayette to Shreveport.

It has taken nearly 80 for the state to actually fund the project so if it
is rejected at this point, St. Bernard will never have that 3rd corridor
that it so badly needs.

After the flooding from Katrina, it would make sense if the roadway were to
be build inside the levee protection and extend it down to Violet possibly
with an access road to the back levee system that failed St. Bernard. The
result would be better maintenance on the levee's between the Bayou
Bienvenue Locks and the Violet Canal locks.

The state and/or parish would have to find funds for the extension from
Paris Rd. to Violet but now would be the right time to go forward with the
project if the funds were made available to at least purchase the land on
Florida Ave. due to the damaged property.

Think of it this way, every gallon of gas you purchased in Louisiana over
the past 15 years, you paid for someone else road project. Now it's St.
Bernard's turn to get something back for what was paid in.

The Florida Ave. extension would only be a waste of funds if the people
rejected it because someone else would be happy to get those funds.

Kent A. Diaz






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