[Senate Hearing 114-40]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
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
__________
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COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENT AND PUBLIC WORKS
ONE HUNDRED FOURTEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
JAMES M. INHOFE, Oklahoma, Chairman
DAVID VITTER, Louisiana BARBARA BOXER, California
JOHN BARRASSO, Wyoming THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware
SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO, West Virginia BENJAMIN L. CARDIN, Maryland
MIKE CRAPO, Idaho BERNARD SANDERS, Vermont
JOHN BOOZMAN, Arkansas SHELDON WHITEHOUSE, Rhode Island
JEFF SESSIONS, Alabama JEFF MERKLEY, Oregon
ROGER WICKER, Mississippi KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND, New York
DEB FISCHER, Nebraska CORY A. BOOKER, New Jersey
MIKE ROUNDS, South Dakota EDWARD J. MARKEY, Massachusetts
DAN SULLIVAN, Alaska
Ryan Jackson, Majority Staff Director
Bettina Poirier, Democratic Staff Director
----------
Subcommittee on Transportation and Infrastructure
DAVID VITTER, Louisiana, Chairman
JOHN BARRASSO, Wyoming BARBARA BOXER, California
SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO, West Virginia THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware
MIKE CRAPO, Idaho BENJAMIN L. CARDIN, Maryland
JOHN BOOZMAN, Arkansas BERNARD SANDERS, Vermont
JEFF SESSIONS, Alabama SHELDON WHITEHOUSE, Rhode Island
ROGER WICKER, Mississippi JEFF MERKLEY, Oregon
DEB FISCHER, Nebraska KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND, New York
JAMES M. INHOFE, Oklahoma (ex
officio)
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
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, 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 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 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 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
mega-projects. 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:]
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
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.
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 first-class 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 waterways, 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.
Right now, Louisiana has one of the lowest gas taxes in the
country 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:]
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
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 ocean-going 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 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.
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:]
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
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 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-to-heart 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.
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 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.
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 naturally 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 general 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.
[all]