Legislation that would have brought together the bayou parishes region with Acadiana in an effort to place the conversion of I-49 South on solid asphalt appears to have run out of gas with less than three weeks remaining in the regular session. Members of the Senate Transportation Committee expressed concern last week that the proposed Energy Corridor Commission would have had too much sway over the project and set a precedent for a nonprofit handling responsibilities normally delegated to the state Department of Transportation.
Sen. Mike Michot, R-Lafayette, wanted to rename the existing Lafayette Metropolitan Expressway Commission and transform it into a new 15-member commission that would have had the power to tax an eight-parish region, borrow money and sign into contracts with private companies. The boundaries of the proposed political subdivision were to include Iberia, Lafayette, Lafourche, St. Charles, St. Martin, St. Mary, Terrebonne, and Vermilion parishes.
While Senate Bill 176 would have focused on the continued upgrades to I-49 South, Michot says he intended it to cover other important projects in the region like La. 1. For years, local lawmakers have argued in favor of the I-49 connector; not only for reasons of commerce for shipping, but also as a hurricane evacuation route for residents.
Kam Movassaghi, former state transportation secretary and president of C. H. Fenstermaker and Associates, told lawmakers that Lafayette officials wanted the new commission to lobby and research tolls – like those being used as part of the La. 1 improvement – along the proposed route of I-49 South. The commission would have also been empowered to study and design highway projects as well as bid them out and award jobs.
In a comment that drew scorn from committee members, Movassaghi said the parishes involved chiefly wanted the authority due to the “state’s inability” to deliver transportation projects in an efficient manner.
Sen. Robert Adley, R-Benton, criticized the legislation for not including legislative oversight and said it’s too much power to hand over to an unelected bunch. “You could do anything you wanted to with this,” Adley said. “You would be out there on your own and you just have got to have oversight. It just doesn’t make any sense to me. I’m sorry.”
The committee’s chairman, Sen. Joe McPherson, D-Woodworth, said the same group could still get together to accomplish their goals under current law. “You can do all of this now,” McPherson told Movassaghi and Lafayette Metropolitan Expressway Commission Chairman Mickey Mangham. “Did y’all really look at this bill?”
Sen. Dale Erdey, R-Livingston, added that he wasn’t convinced that the region stretching from Lafourche to Lafayette had special needs. “I think every interstate system in the state is in energy transportation,” Erdey said. While that may be true, Port Fourchon alone, as the nation’s only offshore oil port, influences production and distribution of up to 18 percent of America’s entire oil and gas supply.
Ho-hum, infrastructure improvements in Louisiana stalled by power struggles. What's new?
... written by Northsidian , June 08, 2009 - 10:00 pm
That Kam guy and his chamber friends (Give me a raise Michot among them) just love any kind of way to tax us!! I am glad it was shot down!!
... written by PlumpyBoy , June 09, 2009 - 06:28 pm
I'M HAPPY IT FAILED ! EVERY TIME A GOVERNMENT PROJECT FAILS ITS A WIN FOR THE TAX PAYER'S !
... written by Voodoo Science , June 09, 2009 - 09:07 pm
If Trammel hadn't stuck his nose in the State project, I-49 could have been 6 laned to Broussard and still Joey keeps the guy.
... written by roadie , June 10, 2009 - 07:57 am
Didn't tramel say DOTD planned to use some one time money from last budget year on the remainder of the widening through Broussard. By the way, it will be 6 laned to Broussard, just not all the way to 182. and seriously every time someone grumbles about taxpayers winning, I keep laughing when I hit those patches all over the roads less than 3 years after the road was repaved. As to this article, yes, toll roads are un-american, but so is relying only on highways to get around, especially when the only tax funding is through fuel taxes. Bill Anker the DOTD man said it himself, DOTD can't really make any progress addressing other transportation needs in the state, because the authority hasn't been vested within his department. So off they go widening roads, putting down patches, planting wildflowers, and making prettier signs to put up on the interstates; light rail, streetcars, commuter rail between Red Stick and Nolya? Hmm, never heard of it? What does he say to do? Lobby your representatives.
But maybe when Louisiana gets off the can, and realizes that the automobile mecca has already been built, and we could never afford it and sure as heck can't afford it now, then maybe we'll find a solution. Or, do we really have to do the dumb thing, and wait til the Titanic is sinking? Kinda late to build lifeboats then. Every further investment in expanding this utopia is going to further bankrupt the state. And what happens when all the offshore wells have been sucked dry and the technology can go no further out to sea to get it affordably? Hmm, what then people? Having said all this, Lafayette could use a bypass, the one-quarter loop on the southwest from 10 to 49. That'll take that 10% of non-local traffic off of the downtown thruway. And they expect us to pay $300-700 million for that? That would buy a lot of Johnston Street boulevard, and Jefferson streetscapes. Traffic will go wherever you let it. The problem is people around here wanting 40 acres and a pool out in Youngsville to live that country lifestyle while commuting in the sedan to sit parked in an office all day.
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There will soon be a whole lot of shakin’ going on at Benny’s Sportshack Supplement Depot, a new concept by Opelousas native Benny Nele. Located at 2002 Johnston St., the supplement shop, smoothie bar and café, featuring hot off the press paninis and wraps, plans to open in late May.
Philip deMahy Sr., a once respected New Iberia ad exec, was sentenced May 2 to spend the next two years (he faced up to 100 years) in a state penitentiary after state and federal investigators found dozens of images depicting children engaged in lewd sexual acts on his personal computer.
This year’s Cool Town issue is all about people who are not native to South Louisiana but made a conscious decision to be here, to be among us, to participate in our culture and contribute to it.
A shelved ordinance transferring $200,000 from a northside drainage project to a south Lafayette development may not break any laws, but it stinks to high heaven.
An effort to restore a shuttered dancehall and document other vacant or razed honky-tonks could serve as a model for saving an endangered species of entertainment.
Lafayette’s gene pool has been host to a long line of eccentric characters who have blurred the lines between crazy, genius, disturbed and curiously entertaining.
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