[StBernard] Budget surplus to finance $85 million in local road projects

[Westley Annis]

Budget surplus to finance $85 million in local road projects
Posted by The Times-Picayune December 05, 2007 8:09PM
East Jefferson bureau 

Buoyed by a state budget surplus that has surged since Hurricane Katrina,
Louisiana transportation officials are about to launch a raft of road,
bridge and port improvements in the New Orleans area. 

Twenty-one upgrades, which state officials expect to cost about $85 million,
are scheduled for Jefferson, Orleans, Plaquemines, St. Bernard, St. Charles,
St. John the Baptist and St. James parishes, transportation officials said
Wednesday. They include new ramps at the Interstate 10-Causeway Boulevard
interchange in Metairie, resurfacing bumpy Claiborne Avenue from South
Carrollton Avenue in New Orleans to the Jefferson Parish line and improving
drainage along St. Bernard Highway in St. Bernard Parish. 

Transportation jobs across the state are receiving a total of $695 million
in surplus money generated by hurricane rebuilding. Signs marking some of
the construction sites will announce, "Funded with a one-time surplus." 

Officials expect most of the construction to begin next year. 

"It's a real welcome relief, we hope, for drivers across the state," said
Mark Lambert, spokesman for the Louisiana Department of Transportation and
Development. 

Lambert said the enhancements at the I-10-Causeway interchange will likely
touch more drivers -- 150,000 to 200,000 a day -- than any other project
across the state. 

The plan is to spend $20 million to $30 million on the interchange,
including alignments of existing ramps, building a new ramp from northbound
Causeway to westbound I-10 and building another new ramp from westbound I-10
to northbound Causeway. 

Lambert said the work will smooth out conflicts at the interchange.
Northbound Causeway traffic, for example, will no longer have to mix with
northbound traffic exiting at Veterans Memorial Boulevard. Each route will
have its own clear path. 

"This project is really designed to relieve that," Lambert said. "It's going
to be safer. It will certainly save time." 

This feature has been on the drawing board for at least nine years and could
help separate local traffic from afternoon commuters leaving New Orleans for
homes on the north shore. 

The surplus money is also letting the Transportation Department boost its
spending for one year on port improvements, including a new hydraulic dredge
for the Port of New Orleans, a new transit shed for the St. Bernard Port,
Harbor and Terminal District, and a new pier at the Port of South Louisiana
in St. John Parish. 

And three feasibility studies are on the list, examining the ideas of
replacing the Belle Chasse Highway tunnel and bridge at the Intracoastal
Canal with a new bridge, eliminating the often-flooded I-10 railroad
underpass near Metairie Road, and elevating the entire stretch of I-10
between Interstate 610 and the Lake Pontchartrain twin bridges. 

"The obvious reason for that is because we know it can flood really badly,"
Lambert said of the latter study focusing on eastern New Orleans. 

All of the projects combined will only skim the surface of a $14 billion
backlog of road and bridge improvements in Louisiana, transportation
officials said. 

They said the primary financing source for such projects is a 16
cent-per-gallon gasoline tax. Because the tax is collected on the basis of
volume, not price, it fails to keep pace with rising costs of construction,
including post-Katrina spikes in labor expenses and oil price increases that
in turn raise the cost of asphalt and other materials. 

"Because that tax is based on the gallon, it does not rise as the price of
gas goes up," Lambert said. "The only way that the revenue of the gas tax
goes up is if more gasoline is purchased." 

Adjusted for inflation, the tax has lost half of its value since its
inception in 1984, according to a Transportation Department report. 

Lambert called on Gov.-elect Bobby Jindal and the Legislature to find
permanent ways to address the rest of the backlog. Without this $695
million, one-time infusion, he said, few if any of the projects on the
surplus list would see fruition in the foreseeable future. 

"We might do one or two," he said. 

State officials announced the 21 south shore projects during a stop in
Metairie on Wednesday that was part of a statewide tour. On Tuesday in
Covington, they showcased north shore projects, including resurfacing
Interstate 12 between U.S. 190 and Bayou Lacombe and widening Louisiana 437.
Eleven projects in St. Tammany, Tangipahoa and Washington parishes will
total more than $38 million. 

Other projects across Louisiana include repairs to rural bridges, seven
flood protection and hurricane evacuation route projects, and 11 port
projects. 

The statewide construction will spread across 633 miles of highway. 

Mark Waller may be reached at mwaller at timespicayune.com or (504) 883-7056
--------------------------------

New transit shed for the St. Bernard Port, Harbor and Terminal District,
Chalmette Slip, Dock No. 2

Resurfacing and patching holes and cracks from LA46 to LA39

New box culverts, drainage pipes and improved shoulders over drainage
structures on St. Bernard Highway