New elevated section of LA 1 dedicated

The newest elevated section of La. Highway 1 between Leeville and Port Fourchon was expected to open to motorists on Monday, three days after a bevy of elected officials and citizens gathered at the foot of the completed section Friday for a ribbon cutting ceremony to mark its opening.

The section connects the new Leeville overpass, with the intersection of La. Highway 3090, better known as Fourchon Road.

The Leeville overpass was completed two years ago.

Traffic will now have an eight-mile elevated route between the port and Leeville, largely leaving behind old La. Highway 1, which is becoming more susceptible every year to flooding from subsidence and storm surges.

Gov. Bobby Jindal joined Lafourche Parish President Charlotte Randolph, Lafourche Parish Sheriff Craig Webre, state Sen. Norby Chabert, Greater Lafourche Port Commission President Larry Griffin and other dignitaries and business leaders on Friday, noting the importance of the project to attendees.

“This is a day of celebration,” Jindal told those gathered for the ceremony. “This project is critical for not only our region and state, but for the entire country.”

LA1 Coalition Executive Director Henri Boulet, who along with Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development Secretary Sherri LaBas, also attended the ceremony, said that the highway was expected to open sometime on Monday after crews finished putting the final touches such as the striping and painting of arrows on the road surface.

With this piece in place, the coalition is now expected to turn its attention to acquiring funding for the final portion of the project, the eight mile elevated stretch connecting the Leeville overpass northward to just inside the town limits of Golden Meadow. Boulet noted recently that this portion of the project would be split into segments with the first one being approximately a mile in length. To that end, supporters are hoping that a recently released report from the Department of Homeland Security acknowledging the economic and national security importance of La. Highway 1 will aid them in acquiring federal funding for the construction phase of the segment.

The state has committed $20 million to the next phase of the project with another $6 million coming from private sources, something rarely seen in public infrastructure projects. Boulet and coalition members are hoping the combination of this funding, in conjunction with the federal government report, will garner the project some $18 million in federal money it is seeking for the first mile of construction of this section.