St. Tammany News

A proposed highway connecting two eastern Louisiana parishes got a boost Wednesday when a state senator told Bogalusa residents that the idea is long overdue.

Speaking before the Bogalusa Chamber of Commerce, Sen. Ben Nevers, D-Bogalusa, said that if the state doesn't extend Louisiana Highway 3121 south to Interstate 12 soon, it may never, he said. The highway, which connects Sun to I-12 at Louisiana Highway 1088 northeast of Mandeville, would traverse rural areas of St. Tammany Parish. The cost of the highway would be $150 million paid for by a tax on gasoline approved by voters nearly two decades ago.

Proponents believe the highway would pave the way toward economic development in Washington Parish, provide a safer road, a quicker route to hospitals in St. Tammany Parish and alleviate traffic on the Northshore. Critics worry the highway will have an adverse impact on wetlands and develop serene areas without providing advertised benefits.

The Army Corps of Engineers is studying the proposal and determining what impact the highway would have on the environment. The plan cannot move forward until the Corps grants the state a permit to build the highway.

"This is the single most important project in Washington Parish history," said Washington Parish President M.E. Taylor. When the highway was proposed in 1989, Bogalusa was the largest city in the state without access to a four-lane highway. Believing the new route would open the parish to commercial endeavors, Taylor, as then-mayor of Bogalusa, favored it.

In the nearly 20 years since then, the city has struggled and its population has dwindled. "At one time, Bogalusa was the sixth largest city in the state. Today, I'm not sure I can buy a suit there," Taylor said. He believes that easier access to the parish would be a boom for its economy. "History shows that commerce and people follow four-lane highways," he said.

Besides providing access to Washington Parish, La. 3241 would relieve traffic on Louisiana 21 and U.S. 190 in Covington by offering a shorter route to I-12 for southbound travelers, Nevers said. It would also provide a shorter route to hospitals on the northshore and in New Orleans for Washington Parish residents and an additional northbound evacuation route for northshore residents.

However critics of the proposed highway worry it will disturb wetlands without providing any of the benefits Tayor and Nevers predict.

Leslie March, a Mandeville resident and the executive committee chairwoman of the state Sierra Club, said she would rather preserve the Talisheek Wetlands between Abita Springs and Pearl River and widen an alternate route.

Jill Mastrototaro, director of the Lake Ponchartrain Basin Foundation, felt similarly.

Until the Army Corps of Engineers unveils its report on the highway's impact on the environment, she will remain worried about lost wetlands.

March said the Northshore is popular with people who want to leave the New Orleans metro area, "but we're becoming Metairie very quickly." Developments that would spring up alongside the highway would produce an undesirable suburban sprawl, she said.

Moreover, Mastrototaro said she doesn't think La. 3241 will alleviate Northshore traffic. Her preference is to expand La. 21 or La. 41, but Thomas said that is infeasible because too many residents live along those highways.

The proposed route for La. 3241, he said, displaces only four homes.

Nevers said the money to build La. 3241 has already been secured. Voters approved it years ago.

But if it isn't used soon, the money will return to the state's general fund, he said.