Baton Rouge Temperature: 67°
  SEARCH:    GO    2theadvocate    Classifieds    Advocate Archives
Monday, May 12, 2008

LEGISLATURE & POLITICS

Roads chief says program bankrupt

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

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.


Comments (6)
pls
Friday, May 09, 2008
12:25 AM

Lousiana needs to find other sources for road money!!!!!!!! How in the world does the state not see this coming????????
Gilles
Friday, May 09, 2008
8:02 AM

They should not have spent so much on a bridge that nobody will use!! A clear case of mismanagement and LA politics.
John Hay
Friday, May 09, 2008
8:10 AM

Why was a bridge approved in an area that lost population in the last census? We have much higher priorities.
Cicero
Friday, May 09, 2008
8:11 AM

How about that loop?
Evets Sug
Friday, May 09, 2008
9:37 AM

This shortage of state money is a perfect example of mismanagement by Governor Jindal. Instead of lowering taxes for special interests, and lowering income taxes this regular session, these taxes should not have been lowered but instead this money should have benn used for highway construction. How can the transportation department be short on state money when the legislature and the governor in the last special session diverted hundreds of millions of dollars to the transportation department? And is the reason there is a shortage of state money in the TIMED program because the managers of the TIMED program hired by DOTD have mismanaged those state bonded highway funds? Why couldn't the DOTD itself manage the TIMED program instead of hiring an expensive outside firm to do it? These problems of DOTD are mostly self-produced by the DOTD and the governor's office. It is disappointing and discouraging that this new administration was supposed to fix these problems, but instead, they are now whining and saying they can't do their job. This present DOTD and administration are just doing the same bad job as previous administrations.
Caleb
Friday, May 09, 2008
10:10 AM

In response to Evets comment. Governer Jindal has only been in office for 4 months now?! There is no way you can blame any of the states current problems on his administration. If you read the article a bit closer it says that millions are scheduled to be divereted towards roads starting in the new fiscal year in July of this year, which was implimented by Governer Jindal. So they are doing something about it, unfortunately there is a little something called "red tape" which runs rampant through ALL goverments from Texas to Maine, that is inhibiting a speedier process. Every problem this state currently has in roads, and other programs can be blamed on past governers and goverment's within the state. The TIMED program is a good idea overall, but like you said, it has been mis-managed (that much I agree with). Everything I have read that Jindal is doing (almost everything anyway) will have a positive outcome for this state. Positive things are already starting to happen. In response to the bridge that is being built. It's being built to connect New Roads to St. Francesville. New Roads (for those of you who dont know) has about 5,000 in it's city limits, and St. Francesville about 1,500. Connecting these two cities with something solid should help the cities grow and give all the people in those two parishes more flexibility in general.
ADVERTISEMENTS
PROMOTIONS


Dish Network

2theadvocate.com Ticket Giveaway - Alicia Keys



WBRZ CHANNEL 2


 
Envelope icon Have a question, comment, news tip or story idea? Click here to give us some feedback.