DOTD plans on using this year’s 76.2-million-dollar federal allocation to continue to improve I-12 in St. Tammany and to address eight bridges throughout the state.
DOTD Secretary Shawn Wilson says its slightly lower than last year’s allocation, and below the 100 million anticipated, but it comes after years of record levels of funding.
“Since 2016 we have gotten record highs, I think the number is slightly over 250 million, and that is quite frankly bigger than many years ahead of that.”
It also marks 19 straight years that the state has put up enough money to draw down the federal matching transportation dollars.
Those eight bridges include the Bayou Boeuf Bridge in Avoyelles Parish, Creek Bridge in Red River, three bridges on LA 1042 in St. Helena, LA 532 over I-20 in Webster and the Amite River Bridge near French Settlement.
“We’ve been talking about bridges for three years in terms of their critical state and what it means for our economy.”
The deaths of four people in 2018 on I-12 in St. Tammany sparked calls to speed up expansion work between LA 21 and US 190. Wilson says these funds will help cover a portion of it.
“Unfortunately, we cannot do all of this at once because we do not have the dollars, but we have programmed all of this very well. It will be a seamless transportation construction project.”
St. Tammany put up eight million dollars to help secure the federal funds for the project.
