Free Republic

The Louisiana Legislature voted overwhelmingly Thursday to move approximately $300 million annually from a fund that pays for higher education and health care to a fund that pays for large transportation projects. Supporters have said the spending will not only improve the state’s infrastructure system, but that it will also create construction jobs. Critics are concerned the proposal would exacerbate an already expected budget deficit in July 2025 affecting state universities, hospitals and other health care programs. Gov. John Bel Edwards needs to sign the legislation for it to become law. Edwards hasn’t decided if he approves of the bill...

Even though it’s been about a year since the last public meeting on the Interstate 49 Connector in Lafayette, the project isn’t dead, or even dormant. Louisiana Transportation Secretary Shawn Wilson told The Acadiana Advocate on Monday things are happening to move the 5-mile section of interstate toward the federal Record of Decision needed to secure funding and start construction. The ideas and plans presented at public hearings over the past two years are being worked on, he said, and the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development is drawing up a contract extension for the consultants working on the project....

What to do with the rundown, dangerous and divisive Evangeline Thruway is a critical open question facing state transportation officials planning an elevated interstate connection through the heart of Lafayette. The Department of Transportation and Development is considering two options: keep the basic structure in place as a frontage road, or reinvent a portion of the roadway as a pedestrian-friendly “Grand Boulevard.” The thruway cordoned neighborhoods to the east when it was built in 1963, and the boulevard idea aims to reconnect those neighborhoods to downtown commerce. State officials and their consultants said a decision will come within a year....