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94–999 PDF 2015

S. HRG. 114–40 

NEED TO INVEST FEDERAL FUNDING TO RELIEVE 

TRAFFIC CONGESTION AND IMPROVE OUR 

ROADS AND BRIDGES AT THE STATE AND 

LOCAL LEVEL 

FIELD HEARING 

BEFORE THE

SUBCOMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION 

AND INFRASTRUCTURE 

OF THE

COMMITTEE ON 

ENVIRONMENT AND PUBLIC WORKS 

UNITED STATES SENATE 

ONE HUNDRED FOURTEENTH CONGRESS 

FIRST SESSION 

JUNE 1, 2015—BATON ROUGE, LA 

Printed for the use of the Committee on Environment and Public Works 

( 

Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys 
(II) 

COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENT AND PUBLIC WORKS 

ONE HUNDRED FOURTEENTH CONGRESS 

FIRST SESSION 

JAMES M. INHOFE, Oklahoma, Chairman 

DAVID VITTER, Louisiana 

JOHN BARRASSO, Wyoming 

SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO, West Virginia 

MIKE CRAPO, Idaho 

JOHN BOOZMAN, Arkansas 

JEFF SESSIONS, Alabama 

ROGER WICKER, Mississippi 

DEB FISCHER, Nebraska 

MIKE ROUNDS, South Dakota 

DAN SULLIVAN, Alaska 

BARBARA BOXER, California 

THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware 

BENJAMIN L. CARDIN, Maryland 

BERNARD SANDERS, Vermont 

SHELDON WHITEHOUSE, Rhode Island 

JEFF MERKLEY, Oregon 

KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND, New York 

CORY A. BOOKER, New Jersey 

EDWARD J. MARKEY, Massachusetts 

RYAN JACKSON, Majority Staff Director 

BETTINA POIRIER, Democratic Staff Director 

SUBCOMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE

DAVID VITTER, Louisiana, Chairman 

JOHN BARRASSO, Wyoming 

SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO, West Virginia 

MIKE CRAPO, Idaho 

JOHN BOOZMAN, Arkansas 

JEFF SESSIONS, Alabama 

ROGER WICKER, Mississippi 

DEB FISCHER, Nebraska 

JAMES M. INHOFE, Oklahoma (ex officio) 

BARBARA BOXER, California 

THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware 

BENJAMIN L. CARDIN, Maryland 

BERNARD SANDERS, Vermont 

SHELDON WHITEHOUSE, Rhode Island 

JEFF MERKLEY, Oregon 

KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND, New York 
(III) 

C O N T E N T S 

Page 

JUNE 1, 2015 

OPENING STATEMENT 

Vitter, Hon. David, U.S. Senator from the State of Louisiana ............................ 1 

WITNESSES 

LeBas, Sherri, Secretary, Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development .................................................................................................................. 3 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 6 

Coco, Joey, American Society of Civil Engineers .................................................. 20 

Perret, Ken, President, Louisiana Good Roads and Transportation Association ........................................................................................................................ 22

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 24 

Quezaire, Roy, Deputy Director, Port of South Louisiana ................................... 26 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 29 

(1) 

NEED TO INVEST FEDERAL FUNDING TO RELIEVE TRAFFIC CONGESTION AND IMPROVE 

OUR ROADS AND BRIDGES AT THE STATE 

AND LOCAL LEVEL 

MONDAY, JUNE 1, 2015 

U.S. SENATE, 

COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENT AND PUBLIC WORKS, 

SUBCOMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE, 

Baton Rouge, LA. 

The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10 a.m. in room 

348, East Baton Rouge Parish Council Chamber, 222 St. Louis 

Street, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Hon. David Vitter (chairman of the 

subcommittee) presiding. 

Present: Senator Vitter. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. DAVID VITTER, 

U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF LOUISIANA 

Senator VITTER. Good morning and thank you for joining me in 

Baton Rouge today for the Senate Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee hearing on the need to invest Federal funding 

to relieve traffic congestion and improve our roads and bridges at 

the State and local level. 

We are talking about building infrastructure to relieve traffic 

congestion, and that just goes to basic quality of life issues. Particularly those of us who live in this part of the State certainly get 

being stuck in traffic and wasting valuable time as we try to get 

to work or bring kids to soccer or school or whatever else. 

So it’s a basic quality of life issue. It’s an important safety issue. 

And it’s an important economic issue. Because the more we have 

these tie-ups, we have lack of productivity, and, quite frankly, 

these bottlenecks can be a significant turnoff in terms of more jobs 

and economic development coming here. 

As Chair of this Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee 

that I mentioned, I have been very focused on the Federal aspects 

of this problem. So last year, for instance, I worked with other key 

leaders to pass a Federal highway bill reauthorization. We put that 

together. It was a long-term bipartisan bill. We passed it through 

our committee, but it did not pass through the whole Congress. So 

we still have that work to do. 

This year, I am redoubling those efforts, reaching out, working 

with other key leaders on putting together that highway bill extension. We have had a lot of short-term extensions. My goal is certainly for a medium- or long-term bill, 6 years, if at all possible, 
2 

because that gives us the stability to be able to plan and move forward in a really productive way. 

Let me go to our slides now that illustrate some of the key issues 

we are talking about. First of all, a little bit of good news, we have 

a long way to go, but a little bit of good news. Since I have been 

involved working with others, because of the work of many folks, 

certainly not just me, we have been able to increase Louisiana’s 

rate of return on the Federal gas tax. 

So every time you fill up your car at the gas pump, you’re paying 

a gas tax to the Feds and to the State. So this is the Federal gas 

tax, how much do we get back for every dollar we send to Washington from the State. Back in around 1998, as I was coming to 

Congress, it was only 90.5 cents on the dollar. 

In the next big Federal highway bill, we were able to increase 

that significantly to 93.7 cents on the dollar, but that still made us 

a quote, unquote, donor State. In other words, we were sending 

more money to the Feds than we were getting back for important 

projects. 

Now, in the current bill, we are slated to get a little over a dollar, 102 cents on the dollar. So we will actually be getting back, 

through the Federal Highway Program, more than we are sending 

from Louisiana in the Federal gas tax. 

A few other accomplishments. We passed some language to 

streamline bridge projects, particularly smaller bridge projects so 

we can do those more efficiently. We have authored legislation to 

advance vehicle technologies like ignition interlock locks that can 

be very helpful, dramatically cutting down on drunk driving. 

We are targeting funds in the next highway bill to build additional lanes and improve the flow of commerce in areas of greatest 

congestion nationally. As you can imagine, Baton Rouge will absolutely qualify, Greater New Orleans will also qualify. 

And over several years, we have secured significant funding for 

important projects. Those are five bullets that illustrate significant 

funding for specific targeted projects like Baton Rouge congestion 

relief. But obviously there’s a lot more work to be done. 

So Louisiana traffic, how bad is it? You all live in Greater Baton 

Rouge. I don’t need to tell you. But just a few statistics. We rank 

40th in the Nation in terms of our overall highway system. And we 

are 19th for urban interstate congestion here in Greater—that’s actually statewide in urban areas, with about 31.67 percent of the 

miles on urban interstates counted as congested in Louisiana. 

And our roads, how bad are they? We are actually ranked worse 

in terms of road condition, 48th in the Nation, with 15.31 percent 

of interstate mileage considered in outright poor condition. 

That obviously has a big negative impact on safety. We are 

ranked very poorly in terms of deadly crashes, ranking 44th, with 

a fatality rate of 1.54 deaths per 100 miles traveled by vehicle. So 

we need to improve that. 

And then a big negative impact on commerce, which again, we 

all get through the Greater Baton Rouge experience. These are national figures. 

The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates that the loss 

of sales nationally because of congestion could total a trillion dollars in this time period 2012 to 2020. And the reduced productivity 
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and higher expenses could drain $3.1 trillion from our Gross Domestic Product. So it certainly is a negative impact on the economy. 

And this final slide is our current Federal Highway Program 

funding challenge. So the part to the left in the darker shade is 

past to the present. And those bars are basically the revenue from 

the Federal gas tax. And as you can see, in the past, they have basically covered the program. But as costs go up with normal inflation, if you look to the right, that’s the future. 

And the Federal gas tax, the way it is slated to continue, which 

are the more lightly shaded bars, will not cover the cost of the program even at current levels, adding inflation. So that gap, that 

delta between the lightly shaded bars and the line is the challenge 

we have in terms of funding the Federal Highway Program moving 

forward. And that’s a lot of what we are here to talk about today. 

We are very, very honored to have four excellent witnesses with 

us this morning from Louisiana who have great insight and significant roles in all of these issues. So let me introduce all four of them 

and then they will testify for about 5 minutes each in turn, and 

then we will have a discussion with them. 

First, we are going to hear from Secretary Sherri LeBas, who 

heads the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development. Secretary LeBas is a Professional Civil Engineer with more 

than 29 years in State service in Louisiana working in DOTD, as 

well as the Division of Administration. She is responsible for more 

than a $1.7 billion annual budget and over 4200 employees across 

the State. 

Next, we will hear from Joey Coco. Joey is currently a managing 

principal with the firm Forte and Tablada of Baton Rouge. He has 

served as the President of the American Society of Civil Engineers, 

Baton Rouge Branch, and as a Director of the Louisiana Section of 

the ASCE. He is also a Deputy Director of the first Louisiana infrastructure report card which was released in 2012. 

Next, we will hear from Ken Perret. Ken is currently President 

of the Louisiana Good Roads and Transportation Association. Prior 

to his current role, he served as an Assistant Secretary for the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development and an Administrator for the Federal Highway Administration. 

And last, but certainly not least, will be Roy Quezaire. Roy 

served as State Representative from District 58 from 1992 to 2007 

and he chaired the State House Transportation Committee during 

his tenure there. He resigned his seat to become the legislative liaison for DOTD and he is currently Deputy Director at the Port of 

South Louisiana, which is our Nation’s No. 1 port in terms of commercial tonnage movement. 

Again, thanks to all of you for being here, for your work, and we 

will start with Secretary LeBas. 

STATEMENT OF SHERRI LeBAS, SECRETARY, LOUISIANA 

DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION AND DEVELOPMENT 

Ms. LEBAS. Good morning. I would like to take this opportunity 

and just say thank you for inviting me here to speak before the 

subcommittee on behalf of DOTD. 

A strong and viable transportation system is needed in order to 

support the growth of Louisiana’s economy. This growth can only 
4 

happen by working together with local partners and prioritizing 

funding for transportation projects that improve major corridors, 

reduce traffic congestion, and improve road quality. 

An example of this growth is the Horace Wilkinson Bridge, also 

known as the new bridge in Baton Rouge. Largely due to economic 

growth, the average daily traffic on this bridge has increased from 

88,500 in 2010 to 102,502 in 2013. This is a 15 percent increase 

in just 3 years. 

Unfortunately, the cost of providing sustainable and reliable infrastructure and services keeps increasing as our revenue streams 

are stagnant. In this period of growing demands on infrastructure, 

I believe that we must continue to work together to strive for creative and innovative solutions to fund, design, and construct 

projects. It is for this reason we need long-term stability in transportation to meet our Nation’s many transportation infrastructure 

needs. 

DOTD manages $1.7 billion in capital and operating revenue and 

expenditures each year. We are also responsible for maintaining 

the safety and efficiency of Louisiana’s highway system, which includes 16,655 miles of State roadway, including 931 miles of interstate, 12,821 bridges. Of these, 7,887 are State owned. 

Additionally, DOTD supports the development of Louisiana’s 

aviation, marine, rail, and transit infrastructure to facilitate economic growth. These include 34 ports, 62 airports, 11 urban transit 

providers, and 32 rural transit providers, three ferry service locations, and much more. 

Since 2008, DOTD has invested more than $7 billion, which includes $3.93 billion in Federal funds in Louisiana’s infrastructure 

and routinely uses all the money it receives from the Federal Highway Trust Fund. This translates into more than 3,000 improvement projects, including approximately 8,500 miles of roadway, and 

472 bridges. 

As a result of our mutual investment, Louisiana’s backlog of 

roads and bridge needs has been reduced from $14 billion to $12.35 

billion. Still a large number. As most of you know, bridges play a 

significant role in the makeup of Louisiana’s infrastructure. We 

rank first in the Nation for the most movable bridges, third for the 

most timber bridges, and third for bridges with square feet of deck 

area. 

Every day, a high volume of motorists cross the more than 

12,000 bridges statewide. That’s one of the many reasons to invest 

in our bridges. These aging structures not only have statewide but 

nationwide impact as they serve as a vital link of vast economic 

importance. 

One example of an important bridge project which awaits funding is the I–10 Calcasieu River bridge. Currently in the environmental phase, this $450 million project involves six-laning the corridor, replacing the bridge and the approach roadways, in addition 

to revamping nearby interchanges and frontage roads. But current 

funding hinders making this bridge project a reality. 

While we continue to invest in our bridges across the State, we 

are just as equally committed to investing in our roadways. Road 

projects include stretches of roads that need to be overlaid, and 
5 

bridges that are posted causing farm products to have to travel further to get to the market or point of distribution. 

In some cases, it is a local bridge that may have to close because 

there aren’t enough dollars to make the necessary repairs. Sadly, 

these figures will continue to escalate as the national highway system ages. Additionally, we are seeing increased vehicular and truck 

usage across the country and especially on the Nation’s interstates. 

On our displays, we have one that outlines the State’s megaprojects. Louisiana DOTD’s current update to the statewide Transportation Plan identifies 113 major transportation improvements or 

mega-projects statewide. 

A mega-project is a very expensive or large-scale transportation 

improvement that has regional or statewide impact which requires 

funding outside the normal DOTD funding mechanisms. 

Also, there are a series of maps that shows normal afternoon 

congestion in the metropolitan areas on a typical afternoon during 

peak hours. In Baton Rouge, we can see traffic begin to build at 

the new bridge at 3:30 p.m. and can last until after 6:30 p.m. 

Thank you for extending this invitation to address this subcommittee and for helping raise awareness to the infrastructure 

deficit by giving it the attention it deserves. 

Louisiana DOTD is not slowing down in its efforts to provide solutions to the State’s infrastructure challenges. However, we are 

depending on the Federal Government to do its share of lifting 

when it comes to funding these solutions. States cannot maintain 

this Nation’s infrastructure alone. We must work together to foster 

economic growth and prosperity by building and maintaining a 

strong infrastructure network. Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. LeBas follows:] 
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Senator VITTER. OK. Thank you very much, Madam Secretary. 

And we will go in the order of my introductions, so Joey Coco will 

be next. 

STATEMENT OF JOEY COCO, AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CIVIL 

ENGINEERS 

Mr. COCO. Thank you, Senator. I appreciate you inviting me to 

be here. I’m here to represent the American Society of Civil Engineers or ASCE. ASCE is the largest engineering organization in 

the country. It was founded in 1852 and has members represented 

in 174 countries across the world. 

I’m the Past President of the Baton Rouge Branch. I’m also Louisiana Section member, Board Member and, as David mentioned, 

I was the 2012 infrastructure report card Deputy Director. 

ASCE stands on the forefront of a profession that plans, designs, 

constructs and operates society’s economic and social engine, the 

built environment, while protecting and restoring the natural environment. 

Most importantly, I am a practicing engineer. I am a licensed 

Professional Engineer and I have spent much of my career working 

on transportation projects, working on our bridges, under our deteriorating bridges as well. I have worked firsthand on transportation matters in Louisiana and I’m aware of the issues that are 

going on across the country related to our road and transportation 

and bridge infrastructure. 

As our Nation continues to defer maintenance on our roads and 

bridges and transit system and fails to modernize other critical infrastructure sectors, we lose global competitiveness, our economy 

suffers, and we sacrifice our ability to create jobs. 

ASCE’s national 2013 report card graded the Nation’s infrastructure a D∂ based on 16 different categories and found that the Nation needs to invest approximately $3.6 trillion by 2020 to maintain 

the national infrastructure in a good condition. 

In particular, on a national level, bridges received the grade of 

C∂ and roads received a grade of D. So the problems that we are 

talking about here today are not just Louisiana based, they happen 

in the rest of the country as well. 

In 2012, our Louisiana infrastructure report card found that our 

State’s bridge grade was a D∂ and our roads were graded a D. 

This effort was conducted by 50 volunteers from public, private, 

and academic backgrounds and was unfunded. 

We found that Louisiana’s road system is congested, is in poor 

condition, and is inadequate to meet the needs of a State competing 

to provide economic opportunities for businesses and citizens in the 

21st century. Louisiana has the fourth highest square footage of 

bridge deck in the country with Federal and State transportation 

officials classifying almost 29 percent of Louisiana’s bridges as either structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. 

The number of deficient bridges in Louisiana is more than the 

total number of bridges in 10 other States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, and the situation isn’t getting any better. 

Louisiana needs substantial increases in revenue to fund improvement for its deteriorating bridge infrastructure. 
21 

Our deteriorated and congested transportation network costs 

Louisiana motorists $3.1 billion annually. Boiling that down just a 

bit, $1,050 per driver in Baton Rouge, $1,254 per driver in New Orleans. There’s a real cost to inaction on Louisiana families when it 

comes to the quality of our roads and bridge infrastructure. 

This is everyone’s problem. I own this infrastructure. Everyone 

in this audience today owns this infrastructure. Our ASCE members own this infrastructure. The public owns this problem. 

Providing redundancy to alleviate congestion on our major economic corridors in Louisiana is costly, primarily because of the 

major river body crossings that we have, also due to our poor soil 

conditions. The things that make our State great also make our infrastructure very expensive. 

An example is the update to the bridge here in Baton Rouge, the 

old bridge. That project alone, to preserve it, to repair it, to paint 

it, is $100 million. That’s a lot of money. 

Most importantly for Louisiana, we are America’s energy corridor 

and the cost to the Nation and to Louisiana of not having a firstclass transportation system here is real. Of recent, there have been 

numerous mega-project announcements for industry in the State 

but a few have fizzled citing transportation as a reason for not investing in Louisiana. 

Plants just outside of Baton Rouge are struggling to figure out 

how to consistently get people to work, when instead they should 

be focusing on bettering their goods and services. 

Put simply, infrastructure is an investment and without it our 

quality of life will suffer when basic services cannot be provided 

consistently. 

So how can Congress help? As you know, we approach a deadline 

to reauthorize the surface transportation law, MAP–21, by the end 

of July and we feel that extending this deadline further into the 

year will only create more program uncertainty and hinder the 

ability of our members to plan and deliver the types of quality 

projects that we are capable of doing. 

ASCE favors funding solutions that provide for a long-term revenue stream, is sustainable, can grow the program, does not contribute to the deficit and ideally maintains the user fee funding 

principle. 

ASCE supports public/private partnerships, particularly when 

they are used to deliver projects that could otherwise be built with 

existing public funds. However, these deals oftentimes rely on public funding to repay investors, and having political support for user 

fees and for the occasional user fee increases. So it’s essential to 

grow the private market as well. 

ASCE believes that Congress should set its sight on delivering a 

6-year bill with an increase in the funding via a user-fee revenue 

source before the July 31st deadline. This is a tall order, we know, 

but one that has been on the agenda for quite some time and is 

absolutely necessary for Louisiana. 

Finally, I would like to say thank you on behalf ASCE for your 

leadership in Congress specifically related to the Water Resources 

Development Act. We believe that that’s going to help our 16 national categories and those specifically related to dams, inland wa-
22 

terways, levees, ports, and wastewater. Those are very important 

areas for Louisiana. 

ASCE looks forward to continuing to work with you. We greatly 

appreciate your willingness to talk about our infrastructure. And as 

I have said to my friends and family, and colleagues, that our 

bridges and our roads, they can’t talk about their illnesses, someone has to talk about them and we really appreciate, as ASCE, you 

doing that. Thank you. 

Senator VITTER. Great. Thank you very much, Joey. 

And next we will hear from Ken Perret. Ken, welcome. 

STATEMENT OF KEN PERRET, PRESIDENT, LOUISIANA GOOD 

ROADS AND TRANSPORTATION ASSOCIATION 

Mr. PERRET. Thank you, Senator Vitter. I’m here today as my 

role as the President of the Louisiana Good Roads and Transportation Association. We are a nonprofit group that supports adequately financed and well-planned transportation systems that promote economic development, increase safety, and add to the quality 

of life of our citizens. We have 500 members here in Louisiana. 

I come here today with no political agenda, just a facts-based 

message. In Louisiana, we have a broken and bottlenecked transportation system that literally is getting worse every day. Here in 

Baton Rouge, the I–10 river bridge congestion causes traffic 

backups every day and when crashes occur, hours of delay and 

driver frustration result. 

Maintenance of our roads and bridges is being deferred. Congestion is building in urban areas. We now have a backlog of more 

than $12 billion in needs on the existing highway system. 

Since the American Society of Civil Engineers published a report 

card for Louisiana’s infrastructure, a professional nonpartisan 

study of our public infrastructure, our bridges received a D∂, and 

our roads a D. That was 3 years ago and nothing much has 

changed and certainly a grade of D is not an acceptable grade for 

our infrastructure. 

We are not investing enough money in our transportation infrastructure. We finance transportation in Louisiana through a flat 

gasoline tax that has not been adjusted in a quarter of a century, 

yet we pretend to magically address Louisiana’s 2015 transportation needs with a funding model that has not taken into account 

inflation since 1989. That’s like trying to pay today’s bills on a 

1989 salary. In fact, that’s exactly what we are doing. We have 

starved our transportation system of the funding it needs to keep 

up with today’s demands. 

So why aren’t we putting more money into our transportation infrastructure? The political climate in recent years has been hostile 

to suggestions of increased taxes. No one wants to pay more taxes. 

In fact, no matter what plan you come up with, no matter how 

much trust you restore to the trust fund, it is going to take more 

taxes, more finances to fix our roads and bridges. 

The nonpartisan Public Affairs Research Council said the Louisiana transportation system needs an extra $650 million a year 

just to begin addressing the backlog of project needs. The report 

was 6 years ago and not much has changed. 
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Right now, Louisiana has one of the lowest gas taxes in the coun- try at 20 cents a gallon. That translates to about $100 per year for 

the average driver. Just $100 a year. Now if you go out to a dinner 

and a movie, that would probably cost you $100 in one night, and 

so drivers are paying $100 a year for the upkeep of our State roads. 

The national average is 30 cents per gallon in State taxes or about $150 a year. So Louisiana drivers save about $50 a year by 

holding the line on more taxes. The great irony is that in exchange 

for the $50 a year in lower taxes, the average Louisiana driver 

pays more than $1,000 a year extra in higher insurance rates and 

extra car repairs. It does not even value the time wasted while we 

are sitting in congestion thinking about the $50 we saved in taxes. 

Investing in our transportation system creates unique economic 

opportunities. According to the Federal Highway Administration, 

each $1 billion invested in transportation leads to about 31,000 direct, indirect, and induced jobs. The big payoff is the increased economic activity the investment encourages. 

The National Association of Manufacturers says that targeted 

long-term increases in U.S. public infrastructure investment over 

the next 15 years reap tremendous benefits. Major investments will 

create nearly almost 1.3 million jobs, grow the GDP about 2.9 percent, provide a return of about $3 for every dollar invested and 

would significantly increase the American household take-home 

pay. 

As I said in the beginning, Good Roads does not have a political 

agenda, but as a Professional Engineer and as a citizen, I have a 

duty to give you the facts. Our roads and bridges are the building 

blocks of our society. We must make fundamental changes to how 

we finance our system. We must invest in our own ability and in 

our economic future. We must swallow hard the reality that spending more than $1,000 a year for a poor system that simply isn’t 

worth saving $50 in taxes. 

And I have two additional points I would say that what is really 

important in moving forward is to build partnerships and getting 

people involved that are transportation shareholders or stockholders, you might say. That includes local governments, includes 

also the trucking industry. They are a big player. They need to be 

brought onboard and get their support. And from the local, State 

level, it takes leadership of the Governor to have an effective State 

transportation system. 

So certainly we have some leadership in the legislature that are 

trying their best to get some increased funding, but we need leadership on the fourth floor in the Governor’s Office to provide some 

leadership in moving our transportation system forward. 

Thank you for the opportunity to provide this testimony today. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Perret follows:] 
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Senator VITTER. Great. Thank you very much, Ken. Appreciate it. 

Last, but certainly not least, Roy Quezaire. 

STATEMENT OF ROY QUEZAIRE, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, PORT OF 

SOUTH LOUISIANA 

Mr. QUEZAIRE. Good morning. And thank you, Senator Vitter, for 

this invitation. It is indeed an honor and pleasure to participate. 

I have the opportunity here to hopefully educate and sensitize individuals on the impact and the importance that the ports of Louisiana, State of Louisiana, brings to the table for all of us individually and collectively. Also, to also segue back in on the traffic congestion, suggestions and relief opportunities that we should take 

advantage of. 

Traffic congestion as it impacts the ports of Louisiana. First and 

foremost, what is the significance of Louisiana ports? One in every 

five Louisiana jobs is supported by Louisiana ports. 400,000 jobs 

are created and supported also by Louisiana ports. $20 billion in 

personal earnings supported also by the ports, with 500 million 

tons of cargo moved on the lower Mississippi River annually. 

As you can see, on the chart to your left, there are 40 ports in 

Louisiana, including developing ports and the Louisiana Offshore 

Oil Port or basically otherwise known as the LOOP. There are 16 

inland river ports in Louisiana, six deep-draft seaports in Louisiana, and nine coastal energy ports. 

Louisiana ports carry 25 percent of U.S. waterborne commerce, 

which is significant. 47 percent of all Louisiana parishes contain a 

port. Of the five largest ports in the U.S., four are located along 

the Mississippi River. Port Fourchon directly serves approximately 

90 percent of all deep-water offshore rigs and platforms in the Gulf 

and nearly half of all shallow-water rigs and platforms in the region. And it also serves or gives 18 percent or offers 18 percent of 

the U.S. oil supply. 

Net income, operating and non-operating revenues, grew by almost 34 million over a 10-year period for all ports, an average of 

2.9 million for coastal ports. In 2010, ports directly invested approximately $130 million, which yielded the creation and support 

of 2,250 jobs with personal earnings of $85.5 million. Great impact. 

The Port of South Louisiana, for which I proudly serve as Deputy 

Director, extends 54 miles along the Mississippi River, and is the 

largest tonnage port in the Western Hemisphere. Over 291 million 

short tons to major U.S. markets in the Midwest and Northeast is 

what the Port of South Louisiana delivered last year and we are 

looking forward to breaking that record this year. Over 400 oceangoing vessels and 55,000 barges were serviced. Cargo throughput 

accounts for 15 percent of U.S. and 57 percent of all Louisiana exports. 

The Port of Greater Baton Rouge is ranked ninth nationally in 

total tonnage. Lake Charles has plans for $275 million in capital 

improvements in the next 5 years. Deep-draft ship traffic is forecasted to double over the next 10 years, and that’s included in the 

Calcasieu Ship Channel Traffic Study Report. Lake Charles forecasts 42 billion in natural gas related industrial development. 

The Port of Morgan City supports companies essential to oil and 

gas industry and ships agricultural products. Port of New Iberia is 
27 

home to 100 companies providing component parts and services for 

the offshore oil industry. 

Nearly half of all freight moved in Louisiana is by water with 

over 510 million tons in 2012. The five ports on the Mississippi 

River and Port of Lake Charles on the Calcasieu River are some 

of the largest tonnage ports in the United States. With the ports 

of south Louisiana, New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and Plaquemines, 

they are all rated in the top 10. 

The WRDA bill, Senator, which I want to commend you on your 

individual efforts for the State of Louisiana, and all of its ports, 

that bill in 2014, allows for the operation and maintenance of the 

Mississippi River to be 100 percent federally responsible up to 50 

feet. And that additional, that will bring a lot more commerce to 

the Mississippi River. 

The United States Corps of Engineers and DOTD are presently 

cost-sharing in the study to deepen the Mississippi River to that 

targeted 50 feet. Many major chemical manufacturing plants are 

located between the Port of South Louisiana and that of Baton 

Rouge. The lower Mississippi River Deep-Draft Complex is the 

largest in the United States that offer waterborne access into 30 

other States via inland waterways. 

Plaquemines Port is home to the two largest coal terminals in 

the United States. More than 5,000 ocean-going vessels annually 

move through New Orleans on the lower Mississippi River. The 

Port of New Orleans is the Nation’s top port of imported natural 

rubber. It is estimated that the Mississippi River and tributaries 

has over a $200 billion annual impact on the United States. 

Given these significant statistics on the importance of ports and 

therefore the need to improve traffic flow in and out of them, it becomes even more vital when we consider that freight volume is expected to double by 2040. We are already witnessing a new and 

previously unseen boom in domestic energy production and development that in and of itself is driving new conversations every day. 

A report by the American Association of Civil Engineers reveals 

that at the Nation’s 16 major container ports, deficient or congested 

surface transportation conditions resulted in a $795 million impact 

on containerized imports and a $311 million impact on ports. 

In Louisiana, one of our biggest problems is that the Port of New 

Orleans with truck and rail traffic entering and exiting the port in 

downtown New Orleans. Currently, a spaghetti bowl of tracks and 

crossings often cause a train to take over 30 hours just to get 

through the area. 

A goal of the New Orleans Gateway Program is to identify potential future projects throughout New Orleans that will streamline 

and improve the flow of freight and rail traffic through the city and 

to and from the ports. 

To further address the existing challenges and the future demands of traffic flows for our ports, I recently had a discussion 

with and proposed an idea to Senator Vitter. The proposal for 

which he touched upon previously is to complete four-laning LA 1 

on the west side of the Mississippi River I–10 just before the Baton 

Rouge bridge all the way down to the Sunshine Bridge, which has 

been and still is currently under-utilized. 
28 

LA 1 is currently four lanes from I–10 to White Castle. This 

would reduce the traffic on the heavily congested I–10 through the 

center of Baton Rouge. 

Please keep in mind between the—there’s only 10 miles from 

White Castle to Donaldsonville and it would only cost, with this 

idea, cost to bring in those additional two lanes, and you would 

have four lanes from the I–10 bridge all the way down to the Sunshine Bridge. We can then take advantage of the already four-lane 

segments of LA 1, which would be from Port Allen through 

Plaquemine through White Castle. 

We should take advantage, again, of the under-utilized Sunshine 

Bridge, but most importantly, it would give speedier access and 

egress to and from the major ports and plants in southeast Louisiana along the Mississippi River corridor. Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Quezaire follows:] 
29 
30 
31 
32 

Senator VITTER. Great. Thank you very much, Roy. And now let’s 

just have a discussion about all of these ideas. 

First of all, let me say Joey mentioned again the biggest Federal 

issue before us in all of this, which is extending and reauthorizing 

the Federal Highway Program. And for the record, I certainly agree 

that this next step, we need a longer term approach. Quite frankly, 

there’s a split in Congress. Some folks, particularly on the finance 

committee, who have to come up with the funding, are looking at 

simply another kick-the-can-down-the-road to the end of the year. 

I think that would be very negative and that they should really 

focus on a five, 6-year bill, which is what we are putting together 

on the transportation policy side in our transportation committee. 

So that’s a debate and a work in progress. So I would certainly 

encourage all of you in your national associations to weigh into 

that for a longer term bill. We will have to come up with something, one way or the other, by late July, early August, and hopefully it will be a longer term bill, which I support. 

Madam Secretary, let me start with you. For obvious reasons, 

you and many others in the audience touched on the bridge here 

in Baton Rouge. Short-term, I’m not talking about the big picture, 

ideal solutions, but short-term, are there any improvements that 

could give some meaningful relief like closing either completely or 

at peak traffic times the Washington exit? 

Ms. LEBAS. Well, first of all, we have synchronized the lights on 

LA 1 trying to get people on the west side to take LA 1 down to 

the old Mississippi River bridge and we are doing a rehabilitation 

of the old Mississippi River bridge, which hopefully that will lend 

people to be more apt to use that bridge. It’s not just painting, it’s 

also rehabilitation as well. 

You know, interesting enough, closing the Washington Street exit 

is not going to create the relief that people may believe that it is 

going to create. In addition to that, there’s quite a bit of opposition 

to closing that. But even with that opposition, if you look at the 

traffic modeling that we have done in that area, that will not solve 

the problem. So, what—— 

Senator VITTER. Will it reduce the problem? 

Ms. LEBAS. No. It will not even reduce the problem because 

that’s not what is really causing the problem. It is uncomfortable 

for people, I understand that, but it’s not what is causing the 

backup and the delay. 

What we are looking at? I want to talk about the study that we 

are doing. And I believe now—in the past, I don’t believe we had 

the political will or really the public will to help fix that corridor 

from LA 415 to the I–10/I–12 split. I believe with the increase in 

traffic, I have seen just in my time as secretary for 5 years, that 

momentum and pendulum swing to where people are now demanding and saying this is important to Baton Rouge. This is important 

to our economy. We have got to fix this area. 

We put out a survey, I–10 survey to the people, and I’m happy 

to report we have over 10,000 people who have now taken that survey. You know, I’ve talked about it in my public comments that we 

need the whole community to come together on this project, not 

just the people that live along that corridor, but all the people that 
33 

use it and the people on the west side of the river, as well as the 

east side. 

So we are very encouraged about people taking the survey, over 

10,000, telling us—if there’s anyone listening, please continue to 

take that survey. We extended the date. 

So what are we looking at and what is my vision? Here’s what 

I would like to see happen. We are in the feasibility study right 

now. We will be showing some concepts to the public in August, 

this August. So I encourage people to come. And I have challenged 

the consultant that is doing this project to look at ways that we can 

do fundable pieces. Sometimes it’s so hard for us to look at something and say, oh, my gosh—and I don’t know what the cost estimate for all of this is, but let’s say $400 million, $800 million, 

whatever, to look at it and say, oh, my gosh, I’ve got to come up 

with all that money at one time. 

So what I would like to do is break it into fundable pieces much 

like what we did for I–49 North. We had $50 million segment 

pieces and we just kept chipping away, persevered, and we got it 

done. 

So looking at that for the I–10 corridor, what are some pieces 

that we can do? We have got to go through the feasibility, then the 

environmental stage, then design. We are looking at, going back to 

the Washington Street exit, we are studying what can we do there. 

One of the ideas is putting the exit further back before you get to 

where the I–10/I–110 merge, so that when people are coming from 

north Baton Rouge, want to exit off at Washington Street, they 

don’t have to cross over traffic with people coming off the interstate. 

We are also looking at a possibility of putting the Washington 

Street exit and relocating it on the left side. So I’m not saying that 

modifying the Washington Street exit would not help the situation, 

it would, it’s just if you closed it, you would see no relief in the traffic. You would still see that backup along I–10. 

We have got to do more than that. We have got to look at all the 

corridor. I am very much, being the engineer that I am, on looking 

at data and looking at traffic modeling and that’s what we are looking at. And so I advocate to all of you that when we have the public 

meeting, let’s really look at the data and really have a heart-toheart discussion on what is it going to take to improve traffic along 

that corridor. 

Senator VITTER. Great. Let me ask all of the others, since you’re 

all at least generally familiar with this area and that issue. You 

know, we are going to have this process, not trying to pre-judge 

anything, but based on what you have seen and studied, what do 

you think might be viable, partial solutions for a work-around 

Baton Rouge, a partial loop, whatever you want to call it, including 

Roy has already started that discussion with his suggestion relating to the Sunshine Bridge, including that or anything else. 

Mr. QUEZAIRE. If I could, it’s been a logistical nightmare and motorist frustration, I mean, it’s just escalated to the sky and beyond. 

I think what we need to look at is something that is viable, it’s doable, it makes common sense, and it does not cost over a billion 

dollars to do. 
34 

We have a $12 billion backlog and kudos to the State and the 

Department for reducing that from $15 billion to $12 billion, of actual projects that’s been designed and I mean and—not shelved, 

but basically on the shelf. And to the average citizen, that’s never, 

ever, ever land as far as happening, conceptually speaking. 

However, if we actually segued off and look at the west bank, 

west side of the Mississippi River between Port Allen and 

Donaldsonville, the Sunshine Bridge, there was a study, a feasibility study that was conducted by the Department in 2011, not 

that many years ago, and at that time, the price tag or the forecast 

was all inclusive of the engineering design, the environmental, 

right-of-way acquisition and utility relocation and construction of 

$38 million. To me, that’s more practical. It’s something that you 

can actually see that has a better chance of happening as compared 

to a 1 point whatever billion dollar project. 

I think also with the economic forecast that has been given the 

last quarter of last year, I think our Louisiana Department of Economic Development came forth with a forecast between Baton 

Rouge and Mississippi River and New Orleans, within the Mississippi River corridor that there would be somewhere between 70, 

68 to 72, $74 billion of industrial expansions between that area, 

Baton Rouge and New Orleans in oncoming years. 

But guess what? For foreign investment, foreign direct investment dollars and venture capital to come into an area, guess what 

they look at? Infrastructure. Is it suitable? Is it practical? Is it doable for us to put a business, plant our money here and get a great 

return on that investment? 

So we have to be conscious and aware of how we have to posture 

ourselves as a State, as a region, in particular, since we are here 

in Baton Rouge, but that—that infrastructure, the present infrastructure will be challenged more and more as we go. 

Diverting the traffic, you’re again—one of the individuals that 

gave testimony today said that it’s the truckers don’t even think 

about coming this way. How many dollars have we lost as a result 

of not having the adequate infrastructure and the frustration of sitting on that I–10 bridge. 

West Baton Rouge Parish President Berthelot has been a champion for years talking about segueing off that to 415 and bringing 

it over and tying it over to LA 1. I think those things are doable 

and, again, $38 million in 2011 maybe is $40-something million 

now, but it’s a far cheaper price tag than looking at some of the 

mega-projects that have been shelfed and will probably stay shelfed 

for quite some time until we can bring forth enough dollars to resolve it. 

Senator VITTER. Ken. Joey. 

Mr. PERRET. Secretary LeBas is exactly correct when she says 

you need to build support for any kind of mega-project like the I– 

10 improvement is going to be. Back in 2000/2001, when I first 

came back to Louisiana, we were working on the same project, Eric 

Kalivoda, Deputy Secretary, was deeply involved in it. We were 

that close to having a solution that would have improved the 

project, improved the flow of traffic and not affected hardly any 

property owners. What happened? The political support was not 
35 

there, and a small group of influential people who lived in the corridor convinced the political leadership that it shouldn’t be built. 

Senator VITTER. What was that solution broad brush? I mean, 

just broad brush. 

Mr. PERRET. It was to expand, add additional lanes and to 

change some of the interchanges so they would work better. And 

reroute, I think we had, at that time, planned to reroute the Washington, as Secretary said, to a left off so it wouldn’t conflict with 

the oncoming traffic. 

Another thing, what’s presented to the public is very important 

because at that time they had a model of the improvement that 

was a beautiful model, but it was so big, the model itself was so 

big that it scared people. They thought it was going to destroy their 

neighborhoods. They saw this big model of the improvement. It 

really was just demonstrating, you know, what the features were 

going to be. 

So we have got to be very careful when dealing with the public 

that they don’t get false ideas and start rumors about what is going 

to happen. They need to be given facts about what is going to happen and how they will be impacted and the impacts have to be 

minimized, especially the impacts on business. 

Senator VITTER. Ken, just so I understand, what you’re describing did not involve a partial loop or work-around Baton Rouge? 

Mr. PERRET. No, it was providing additional lanes off the bridge 

so you had two through lanes coming off the bridge. That would 

have moved the traffic on through to College and then out to I–10. 

So I think the secretary is absolutely right, we need to build political and citizen support for whatever is being planned. 

Now there is another plan in the works that involves private/ 

public partnerships, which would be our first effort in Louisiana, 

and that’s a project called Baton Rouge BUMP, which is basically 

coming across the 190 bridge, the old bridge, and doing some improvements to Airline Highway to make it like a freeway all the 

way down to I–12. So that’s being studied right now by Louisiana 

Transportation Authority under DOTD to see if that’s—if that private partnership can work. And of course, it would involve a toll, 

tolling facilities and investments there, but I think that’s an alternate that really needs to be looked at carefully and is being looked 

at right now. 

Senator VITTER. Joey, any comments? 

Mr. COCO. Yes. So one of the thoughts that I have related to this 

subject kind of segues from what Ken had just mentioned is that 

the public support on this is so important and it has to be craftful. 

The power right now of social media, and I’m of the generation 

of social media, you know, I have been on Facebook for probably 

10 years now, so to kind of give you an idea. But, you know, every 

day, we have social media being used to let us know when there’s 

problems on the bridge here in Baton Rouge, there’s notices that 

come out from, you know, the local media that sends a notice, hey, 

you know, there’s a wreck on the bridge, and it’s closed. 

Those types of things and leveraging that information that’s coming from the social media network can be used to start to sway the 

masses to understand that this is an investment that everyone has 

to make, we all have to chip in, we all have to pay for this problem. 
36 

If we don’t, the consequences of doing nothing are going to be 

greater in the end. Our plants in the West Baton Rouge and 

Iberville side and folks that travel from the East Baton Rouge side 

to those locations or those folks that live in that area that are in 

West Baton Rouge and Iberville trying to travel to East Baton 

Rouge to work, the whole system is going to shut down if we don’t 

really significantly invest in it. 

It’s unacceptable when you have, you know, 5 miles of I–12 and 

I–10 waiting to get on the bridge of three lanes wide, you do the 

math, you end up with 15,000 cars sitting there with two or three 

people in the car maybe. It’s really amazing to see how many folks 

are impacted at one time by these events. 

To really leverage social media and try to get people talking 

about it, get the conversation going, it’s really an interesting time 

and I think that it’s a component that we could all improve on to 

say this is what we need to do. We need to really invest in this 

infrastructure in this area. If we don’t, the consequences are going 

to be even greater. 

Senator VITTER. Before we move on, anybody have any specific 

reaction to Roy’s Sunshine Bridge related idea? 

Ms. LEBAS. I would like to add if I could. 

Senator VITTER. Sure. 

Ms. LEBAS. I appreciate all the comments. I think they hit on a 

lot of the projects that we have been discussing and working on. 

Just add a couple more. We have proceeded with the Sunshine 

Bridge. The I–10, 22, LA 22, LA 70, we are surveying that, moving 

forward with designing a four-lane all the way to the Sunshine 

Bridge so that would help in the effort that you’re talking about. 

We don’t have construction money identified, but we are moving 

forward with pre-construction. 

Another project that we are doing a feasibility study on a new 

Mississippi River bridge crossing. It would be in between the new 

bridge, Horace Wilkinson Bridge, and the Sunshine Bridge. I’m of 

the opinion that we do need another bridge crossing in between 

those two bridges along with all that we have been talking about. 

And even with those improvements, the Mississippi River bridge, 

improving flow on the Sunshine Bridge, the BUMP project that 

Ken mentioned, the LA 1 improvements that Roy Quezaire mentioned, I do want to say that our traffic studies show that even 

with those improvements, we still would have that bottleneck on 

the I–10 corridor. 

So even with all of those, we need to fix the part of the new 

bridge here in Baton Rouge but also continue looking, studying, 

looking at traffic modeling to see what is that best next or complementary project that can help with the overall traffic flow. 

Senator VITTER. Right. Right. OK. Roy, since you’re with the 

port, you certainly talked about ports, let me ask you. We mentioned I–49, one of the participants from the audience mentioned 

I–49 South. I assume getting that done to a significant extent and 

eventually completed would have a big positive impact on all of our 

south Louisiana ports. Have you all quantified that at all or have 

a sense of what that could mean for our port activity? 

Mr. QUEZAIRE. Well, from a conceptual perspective, we all embrace the idea of that actually being a reality one day. Quite natu-
37 

rally with the coastal ports and those five major ports, which is the 

largest port complex in the Western Hemisphere from Baton Rouge 

down the Mississippi River to New Orleans, Plaquemines and St. 

Bernard, quite naturally having I–49 as an easier access route will 

certainly enhance our availability of moving products and cargo. So 

yes, we wholeheartedly embrace it. We have not yet even begun to 

talk about the financial part of it, but yes, it’s a great concept. We 

certainly would welcome it. 

Senator VITTER. Right. Finally, let me ask in general, tolling. As 

I said, tolling can and should be an important piece of the puzzle, 

but we are not, in terms of population and traffic count, we are not 

the northeast corridor, we are not Houston, we are not greater Dallas. What is the realistic potential for that to be a significant piece 

of major projects and where would be projects where it could be a 

major positive funding factor? 

Mr. PERRET. The problem with tolls, Senator, is you have to have 

the volume of traffic and you have to have the constriction that 

traffic has to use a certain point to be able to collect the tolls. 

When I was with DOTD, about the only viable area where you 

could use toll financing was in the New Orleans area because you 

have the higher traffic volumes around the West Bank and that 

kind of thing. But certainly toll financing can be a component, can 

be a part of a project. It’s not enough traffic here—we have congestion, but we don’t the high volumes like they have in Texas. 

So it has to be, tolling has to be used in combination with other 

financing methods to supplement it. It may be 20 percent or 30 

percent of the project can be paid by tolls, you know, along with, 

you know, other kind of funding that comes from the State, and 

local and even the local governments can come up with ways to 

raise money. A tax improvement district could be formed to—that’s 

going to be developing because of the toll road and so you could 

have property taxes to help pay for it. So you need a combination 

of funds with toll roads. 

Mr. QUEZAIRE. From the conversations I have been involved in 

through the years that, at best, tolls would probably at its best 

would probably bring maybe one-third of the total cost to the table 

as far as revenue income. I mean, we are maybe stretching it a little saying one-third. But it would have to be a series of components 

plus tolls that would make the project doable. 

Mr. PERRET. I would like to add one thing. On the national level, 

when you all are reconsidering reauthorization is that the Highway 

Trust Fund for many years was adequate for funding the interstate 

system, but what happened is the—it was—it’s a flat tax that 

doesn’t go up when the price of gas goes up. As inflation increased, 

it just has lost its value. 

But in addition to that, there’s been so many bells and whistles 

that have been hung on the Highway Trust Fund that weren’t 

originally in the original intent. Original intent was to do construction of roads and bridges and a lot of these programs are worthy 

projects, worthy programs, but to fund them out of the Highway 

Trust Fund takes money away from the basic needs of the system 

to do highway and bridge rehabilitation. 

So I think that needs to be looked at at a national level as to 

if these programs are worthy, they should be funded from the gen-
38 

eral fund and let the Highway Trust Fund concentrate on the basic 

needs of the system. 

Senator VITTER. I certainly agree with that. I’ve continually 

pushed to move those sorts of things out of the highway program 

and the Highway Trust Fund to sort of rededicate and refocus use 

of trust fund dollars, whatever they are, they are scarce, they are 

always going to be—we are never going to have too much of it. So 

I think we really need to be focused in that way. I agree with that. 

OK. We are going to wrap up here. Thank you all very much for 

coming out. And let’s give a big round of applause to our panel of 

witnesses. Thank you all very much. 

Appreciate it. This is obviously an ongoing conversation. So 

please stay in touch with me and my office about all of these 

issues, including real specific observations or recommendations 

that you make in your neighborhood and areas you travel, needs 

that you have. Please get those to us. 

As you walked in, you got a handout. The blue column on the 

left-hand side of the handout is all of my contact information, including our office right here in Baton Rouge. Please keep that 

handy. 

At the top, also, is my website which has easy e-mail access. 

Please keep that handy and continue to be in touch with me about 

all of these serious traffic congestion issues. 

Thank you all very much. Our field hearing is adjourned. 

Æ