EDITORIAL ROUNDUP

July 5

The Advocate (La.)

Transportation future

If Interstate 49 is to fulfill its potential as a north-south transportation corridor, it has to be finished through the complex and expensive southern end, through the urban center of Lafayette and also across wetlands to connect with the I-310 bridge in St. Charles Parish.

That’s billions of dollars, not mere hundreds of millions. Even in a year of large amounts of federal aid and, for a while, rising post-pandemic tax revenues, today’s flush state Treasury can’t get it all done at once.

But as top legislative leaders told business leaders in One Acadiana’s session wrap-up, the difficult elevated stretch through Lafayette proper will be built “in most of your lifetimes.”

That’s courtesy of the $200 million set aside for the project by the Legislature and Gov. John Bel Edwards.

Senate President Page Cortez of Lafayette said the money will keep the long-term project moving and include funding to improve the bridge over the Vermilion River, with work kicking off next year.

The one-time money was part of an effort legislators made to improve infrastructure in south Louisiana, with $300 million earmarked for a new Mississippi River bridge in the Baton Rouge area and $200 million for the new I-10 bridge in Lake Charles.

All are critical components of the economically vital corridor through southern Louisiana. While we don’t know if the money is enough to jumpstart the Baton Rouge bridge — also expensive — we have our fingers crossed that all three “mega-projects” will be underway in some fashion soon.

Transportation is vital to growth, and we hope and expect that these investments, plus other public funds or even private-sector partnerships, will make them possible.