State steps up maintenance on roads, bridges

State Rep. Ryan Bourriaque is pushing to fix the state’s road and bridges. (Photo by Cross Harris / LSU Manship School News Service)

BATON ROUGE — State officials say they will prioritize maintenance projects, especially on rural roads and bridges, as they seek to reduce an estimated $19 billion backlog in highway projects.

They also are counting on the Office of Louisiana Highway Construction, an entity created by the Legislature last year, to speed up the contracting process.

State Rep. Ryan Bourriaque, R-Abbeville, chairman of the House Transportation Committee, said the new office represents “a litmus test to make sure that we're not going to repeat issues that we've had in the past where funds were appropriated but projects were not implemented.”

His comments came during a webinar held by the Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana that included officials from the highway-construction office and the Department of Transportation and Development.

A report from the Boston Consulting Group found that in the fiscal year that ended on June 30, 2023, only 26 percent of highway projects that were ready to go through the bid process received funding to go forward.

The Legislature placed the office in the governor’s division of administration, not in the Transportation Department. According to Archie Chaisson, executive director of the new office, that will give legislators more oversight on the progress of projects in their districts.

Bourriaque said if House and Senate leadership report the state has any extra money available this year, “you can absolutely bet your hind end that I will fight for infrastructure money.”

Bourriaque is looking forward to the legislative session in March because there is potential for a new bill to create an infrastructure bank that could help finance projects.

A previous bill to create an infrastructure bank passed the Legislature, but it did not survive because it relied on a constitutional amendment rejected by voters. However, the idea might make a comeback for review this year.

The purpose of the bank would be to finance and match funds for revenue-producing projects, like roads, bridges, ports and transit. The bank would provide loans that could be reissued as they are paid off, giving the Transportation Department a revolving door of funds.

Bourriaque mentioned the potential for other bills, but the frontrunner is the infrastructure bank. Compared to last year, Bourriaque only wants to make smaller adjustments to legislation. He suggested to “give this a little time to marinate.”

Based on public comments from DOTD road shows across Louisiana and feedback from legislators, Bourriaque noticed most of the complaints were about smaller rural bridges and roads.

So far, it took the Office of Louisiana Highway Construction less than four months to contract firms and start construction on 11 out of the 62 minor bridges it wants to fix this year.

Its first project, a bridge over Morgan Branch on Louisiana Highway 424 in Washington Parish, started on Jan. 21, and construction is scheduled to end in July or August.

To speed up projects, the Legislature gave the office emergency procurement authority to choose contractors rather than going through a bid process. Although that authority expired in January, Chaisson is confident that the Legislature will grant the office the authority through the 2026-2027 fiscal year. The office is now working under existing contracts.

Chaisson acknowledged DOTD’s involvement in Louisiana’s larger infrastructure projects but noted that the new office’s smaller projects might have a greater impact on local populations.

“That average guy from Thibodaux or Vermilion or Baton Rouge may never drive across the Mississippi River Bridge or New Calcasieu River Bridge,” Chaisson said. “But as we noted, the little guy in Pecan Island on Highway 82 that has to go around the bridge for six months while it's been out — those are the things that cause the most problems for locals.”

DOTD also is working on communication enhancements. Now, any Louisiana resident can see the progress on any road or bridge under construction on the DOTD website. The early release is active, and the final project will be up in July.

This feature allows anyone to see what stage a project is in — or if a project is stalled, why that is.

To see roads or bridges in your area that may be under construction, visit this link: https://dotd.la.gov/projects/.

(LSU Manship School News Service provides stories from state government.)