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STATE OF LOUISIANA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION AND
DEVELOPMENT PUBLIC MEETING RESULTS

There were two meetings—the first at 1:30 was for elected officials where the consultants went over the study in detail. The second was the more informal open house style. Although the public meeting started at 4, people started arriving at 3pm. Officials for the two state dots were present as well as a crew of experts from various engineering firms. Representatives from economic development interests in Crossett were also on hand as a show of support.

The study looked at two representative corridors—nothing carved in stone—to simply estimate costs and determine the cost benefit ratio of each route. Corridor A ran from Monticello through Crossett to Bastrop and on into Monroe using the 165 corridor from Bastrop south. That route would cost $1.6 B and would have a cost benefit ratio of 2.41 (anything over 1 is positive). The projected growth north of Monroe was a huge contributor to this number, but even from 6 miles north of Monroe the c/b was 1.51.

Corridor B would take the road from Monticello past west of Hamburg, thru Mer Rouge and down to west of Rayville. Corridor B is cheaper at $1.5B, but only has a c/b ratio of 1.19.

The vast majority of the participants at both the public officials meeting and the public meeting favored Corridor A.

Mike Brugge of Parsons Engineering did a fantastic job of breaking down the complicated details so that even History majors like me could understand it.

The final draft will be out in October. The next step will be the environmental and routing study which will cost close to $1m. Start bugging your state and federal officials now. Do not take no for answer, and don’t let them duck and dodge. We have to keep this project moving even if it takes 30 years.

The most short-sighted comment I hear is “well I’ll never see it”. So what? Your children and your community will. That may be why we’re behind now—too many people 20-30 years ago saying “well I’ll never see it.” I will represent anyone in court pro bono who slaps the next person who says. “well I’ll never see it”……ok, ok, not really, but you get the point.

FOR MORE INFORMATION LOG ON TO:
www.dotd.la.gov

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