Highway coalition faces funding competition

The LA 1 Coalition hopes to join the 4 percent as it seeks federal grant funding to begin the second phase of constructing an elevated road from Golden Meadow to Fourchon.

The coalition, made up of advocates who say elevating La. Highway 1 is necessary to maintain a reliable connection to the oil-exploration hub at Port Fourchon, applied for $18.4 million in Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant funds.

The application is among 828 requests totaling $14.1 billion in funding through the TIGER program, according to figures released one week ago by the U.S. Department of Transportation.

The program is authorized to award $527 million, or 3.7 percent of requested funds, within the next few months. Of that number, at least $140 million must be awarded to rural areas, which includes the coalition’s project site.

The highway elevation plan was divided into two phases. The first, a toll bridge from Leeville to Fourchon, will be completed Dec. 9 with a ribbon cutting at a new intersection in Fourchon. Advocates are trying to procure funding for the second phase, which will begin at the southernmost portion of the South Lafourche Levee System and end with a connection at Leeville.

Henri Boulet, executive director of the LA 1 Coalition, said he is not surprised by the TIGER participation level and added that he still feels the coalition’s application will be “very, very competitive.”

The application pledges to complement the federal funding with $20 million from the state of Louisiana and $6.6 million from four local entities. The segment totals $45 million in costs, which is a portion of the $320 million the three-part project is expected to cost in its entirety.

The federal share of the first segment would be 40.1 percent. The program is authorized to pay 100 percent of a project’s cost in rural areas and 80 percent in non-rural areas, but one of the criteria on which the applications are judged is a funding partnership.

The coalition also included in its application two federal agencies’ studies, one environmental and the other economic, as testaments to the need of an elevated highway.

Released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in February, the environmental study says that within 20 years, La. Highway 1 would be inundated by relative sea level rise with enough storm water to close the highway 30 times per year.

The economic study says the U.S. Gross Domestic Product would suffer because of the energy-related revenue lost during those closures, Boulet said. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the University of Louisiana at Lafayette’s NIMSAT Institute coordinated to complete the study, which should be made public within the next month.

“We continue to feel that the LA 1 Improvement applications should be very, very competitive, offering 150 percent match of federal dollars requested and highlighting through the results of the recent Homeland Security consequence analysis study on La. 1 the role vulnerable La. 1 plays in the national economy,” Boulet said.

This is the third round of TIGER funding. In 2009 and 2010, the grant administrator received a total of 2,400 applications requesting $76 billion. Only $2.1 billion, or 2.8 percent of the requested funds, were awarded.

USDOT said it received applications from all 50 states, U.S. territories and the District of Columbia.

”The tremendous demand for TIGER grants clearly shows that communities across the country cannot wait any longer for crucial upgrades to the roads, bridges, rail lines, and bus routes they rely on every day,” USDOT Secretary Ray LaHood said in a press release.