U.S. Rep. Garret Graves says the current state of transportation in Louisiana—with years of mismanaged resources, flawed and disparate efforts by state, local and federal agencies to address the issues, and a lack of funding—reminds him of when he took over as head of the Louisiana’s Coastal Restoration and Protection Authority.
And while the freshman Republican congressman from Baton Rouge applauds the state Department of Transportation and Development for its efforts to address transportation in Baton Rouge, he says “the reality is this a planning effort that should have started 40 years ago.”
“The statistic that this is the worst traffic in the nation for a region of its size speaks for itself,” says Graves, who sat down this morning with Daily Report for an editorial roundtable discussion.
Graves’ remarks come on the same week that DOTD is holding three open house meetings with Baton Rouge area residents to get public feedback on a proposal to widen Interstate 10 from the Mississippi River Bridge to the I-10/I-12 split. The final meeting is Thursday from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Crowne Plaza hotel, 4728 Constitution Ave. The widening project could cost upwards of $350 million, and Graves says state leaders do not have funding.
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, on which Graves has a seat, is working on a sweeping transportation funding bill that would award a large funding amount to states that would be used at each state’s discretion for transportation projects, Graves says. However, he can’t estimate how much funding Louisiana might receive because there are several variables consider in awarding the money.
Graves stresses that it is imperative that transportation and parish leaders in the five-parish area—East and West Baton Rouge, Iberville, Ascension and Livingston—reach a consensus on how the money should be spent to alleviate the traffic problem in the area. He says short- and long-term plans to address the problems should be created as a way to prioritize projects for any future funding the state receives.
Federal funding cannot be earmarked for a specific project, but Graves says Congress is tossing around the idea of placing conditions on the funds. For example, he says, any interstate that includes a bottleneck down to one lane—such as the infamous Washington Street exit off eastbound Interstate 10 just over the Mississippi River Bridge—could receive funding priority.
Another idea for funding transportation infrastructure projects that Graves says has received bipartisan support in Congress is the lowering of the repatriation tax so money that American companies have in foreign subsidiaries can be returned to the U.S. He says those funds could be used as a one-time source to get some major transportation projects moving.
—Ryan Broussard
