Roads chief says program bankrupt

• By WILL SENTELL
• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
• Published: May 9, 2008 - Page: 1A - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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Louisiana’s road-building agenda will suffer because a special program for 16 projects has gone bankrupt, state Transportation Secretary     William Ankner said Thursday.

In addition, the state’s list of highway projects is under new pressure because gasoline tax revenue that helps pay for the work is down 7 percent, Ankner said.

The decrease in gasoline taxes stems from less driving amid higher gasoline prices, he said.

“It will probably carry forward in future years,” Ankner said of the revenue dip.

Ankner made his comments to the Joint Transportation Committee and in an interview afterward.

The chief problem stems from a series of 16 projects approved by voters in 1989, including construction of a $406 million bridge over the Mississippi River between New Roads and St. Francisville. It will be called the John James Audubon Bridge.

The package is known in government circles as TIMED, which stands for Transportation Infrastructure Model for Economic Development.

In 1990, officials estimated that it would cost $1.2 billion to finish the 16 projects.

Ankner said on Thursday that the latest price tag is $5.2 billion, mostly because of higher construction costs since Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

“The TIMED program is bankrupt,” he said in a prepared statement.

The Audubon bridge is set to open in 2010.

“I believe that has slipped a bit,” Ankner said of the schedule but did not elaborate.

The cost of that bridge rose 51 percent between 2005 and 2006 because of hurricanes, the rising cost of steel and concrete, and the relatively small number of firms that do bridge work, officials said earlier.