Gov. Landry Stopped Already-Paid-for 6-Laning Of Airline Hwy. in Favor of $1-2 Billion Toll Road

In November 2018, voters throughout East Baton Rouge Parish went to the polls and approved a tax increase to fund long overdue improvements to parish roads and some state highways.

The plan was called MOVEBR.

Residents of the parish have been paying the 1/2 cent sales tax since April 1, 2019. The tax will continue for 30 years until 2049.

MOVEBR included widening of Hooper Road and Wax Road. One of the most important projects was the six-laning of Airline Highway from the Old Mississippi Bridge to Florida Boulevard.  However, so far, very little has been done on any of these three projects.

When Jeff Landry became governor in January 2024, the widening Airline Highway to six lanes was already fully funded by moneys from MOVEBR, Infra, and federal funds.  The project had been authorized by the voters of the parish, and the City-Parish had already spent $2 million on planning the project.

Coleman Brown, chairman of the Infrastructure Committee of the Chamber of Commerce of East Baton Rouge Parish, said adding two additional lanes to Airline Highway will double the capacity of the road.

However, shortly after Jeff Lan-dry became governor, DOTD officials made it clear that Landry didn’t want Airline Highway widened to six lanes. Rather, the governor wanted to build a toll road from the Old Mississippi River Bridge to Florida Boulevard.  The cost would be $1 to $2 billion.

Local officials were flabbergasted.  Making Airline Highway into a toll road sounded bizarre, they said. Why would anyone want to do that, they asked?

The choice was to widen Airline Highway to six lanes from the Old Bridge to Florida Boulevard at a cost of $100 million or build a toll road along the same route for 10 to 20 times as much.

Today the stalemate continues. The money from MOVEBR is still there to wide Airline High but the Landry administration, which has jurisdiction over Airline, won’t allow work to begin.

Yet, at the same time, nothing has been done to fund the governor’s proposed toll road.

On Wednesday, this reporter crossed the Old River Bridge in Baton Rouge at 3:45 p.m. and reached Florida Boulevard before 4 p.m.  Traffic was moderate to heavy.

How much driving time would a toll road save?  One experienced traffic engineer said it might save 3 to 5 minutes.  However, he added that synchronizing the traffic lights could save the same amount.

Coleman Brown said that funding for capital outlay project is limited.  He said $1 to $2 billion spent on a toll road would prevent many other projects from being built.

If the project cost $1.5 billion and that amount was funded by bonds, debt service would be $60 million a year. If 10,000 cars a day used the toll road at $5 each, tolls would produce only $18 million a year, or a third of the cost of debt service, not counting maintenance and other costs.

Critics say building a toll road would mainly benefit large engineering and construction firms.