Expect traffic delays; road fixes coming

With about $42 million worth of road construction getting under way this summer, residents of the Tri-parish area can expect traffic snarls in the near future, and better roads and less congestion by next year.

The unusually heavy construction is due in part to the American Investment and Recovery Act, better known as the stimulus package, which has facilitated $9.6 million in concrete repair, asphalt overlay and turning lane projects in the parishes. With regular parish spending and the $30.4 million project to replace a bridge spanning Bayou Lafourche in Larose piled on top of that, residents can expect to spend extra time in their cars this summer.

“We know construction’s going to be going on, but the traffic flow is going to be much better when it’s complete, so bear with us and we’ll work together on this. Plus it means jobs,” said Sherri LeBas, deputy secretary of the state Department of Transportation and Development.

Stimulus funding will be used to add turning lanes at a total of 14 intersections in Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes, and make asphalt and concrete repairs on dozens of streets. Terrebonne Parish will see the bulk of the street repair projects, with nearly $9 million hitting the roadways this year.

“The stimulus has about $5.7 million in road repairs, and the parish has approximately $3 million in road repairs that we, ourselves, will be doing. It is likely that all of that will be hitting the streets at around the same time,” said Terrebonne Parish Manager Al Levron.

“The plus side is we’re getting all this opportunity to reinvest in the community. The downside is there’s going to be some traffic congestion for a short period,” he said.

Many of these projects will be under way at the same time because the stimulus bill mandates that Louisiana’s $430 million in transportation funding be spent quickly to maximize economic impact.

“Our criteria said we had to have 50 percent of our funds authorized by June, and the other 50 percent authorized by March 2010. So we absolutely had to choose shovel-ready projects,” said LeBas.

St. Mary Parish will not receive any funding for road repair from the federal stimulus because of the structure of the stimulus and choices made by DOTD. According to LeBas, a certain amount of money was allocated specifically for areas with a metropolitan planning organization. The Houma-Thibodaux Metropolitan Planning Organization was given about $9.6 million in funding.

Lacking such an organization, St. Mary Parish did not automatically qualify for grant money. DOTD had an additional $299 million in discretionary funding to use outside of the planning organization. However, no projects from St. Mary Parish were chosen by DOTD.

“They’re not in a metropolitan planning area, so they wouldn’t get a block of money, and on our $299 million dollar list, it just happened that we didn’t fund a project in every parish on that list,” said LeBas.

Of the transportation department’s discretionary funding, the aging pontoon bridge in Larose is the only project in the area to receive funding, which was chosen because the state had already looked at replacing that bridge. The bridge is known for needing frequent repairs, and nearly tipped over when two large 18-wheelers tried to cross it at the same time in October.

“That was a project that we had in our program for about $18 million. We had bid it out once, and it came in around $30 million and we just didn’t have enough in our program. When the [stimulus] funds came to be, we were really excited because the plans were ready to go, it met all the criteria,” said LeBas.

Despite the many caveats and addendums to stimulus funds, local officials seemed more than willing to deal with them for the chance to make needed road repairs.

“Bridge Closed” signs never stray far from this bridge that spans Bayou Lafourche in Larose. A new $30 million lift bridge near La. Highway 308 will replace the aging pontoon bridge thanks to funding from the federal stimulus. * Photo by BRETT SCHWEINBERG