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Peters Road extension: Port and DOTD say consultant selection underway; NTP expected by June
Summary
DOTD and Plaquemines Port officials told the committee DOTD will administer a $7.4 million RAISE grant to redesign the Peters Road extension, advertise for consultants in the coming weeks, and expects a negotiated contract and notice-to-proceed (NTP) by early June even if federal discretionary authorizations undergo additional review.
Plaquemines Port and DOTD briefed the committee on the Peters Road extension project, a locally urgent connection tied to major industrial development in Plaquemines Parish.
Why the project matters Local officials described Peters Road as a critical second ingress/egress for a parish experiencing major industrial growth. The port secured a roughly $7,400,000 RAISE grant intended to accelerate redesign and engineering work, and the port and parish asked DOTD to administer the grant to move the schedule forward.
Schedule and procurement steps DOTD said it began a shortened procurement timeline. A DOTD official told the committee the department issued a pre‑advertisement in January and would issue the formal solicitation within weeks. The department said the advertisement would run the statutory minimum (21 days), evaluation and selection would take about a month, and that the normal 90‑day contract negotiation window will be reduced to 30 days for this procurement.
DOTD said it expects to have the consultant selection and a negotiated contract in place and to issue a notice to proceed by early June. The department also said it has state funds available to advance right‑of‑way acquisition and that the RAISE grant funds would be applied to design and related work. "By the March, the ad will close, the submissions from interested consultants will come in and the evaluation of those is estimated to take approximately a month," a DOTD official said. "Under that timeline, we're looking at early June to have the NTP issued."
Port engagement and CEA Plaquemines Port director Charles Tillerson told the committee the port is preparing a short paragraph of CEA language to preserve port and parish participation in evaluation and selection. DOTD said it has no objection to local participation on evaluation panels provided any local participants have the qualifications needed to evaluate consultant proposals; final contractual authority rests with DOTD under the administration arrangement.
Federal grant authorization caveat DOTD cautioned that some discretionary federal grants are undergoing additional review at the U.S. Department of Transportation; the agency said it will use available state funds to advance critical right‑of‑way and design work if federal authorization is delayed. DOTD said it is treating the procurement as high priority and has truncated internal timelines to accelerate the schedule.
Ending Port and DOTD officials said they expect consultant selection and contract execution on an accelerated schedule and asked the committee to hold them accountable to the June NTP milestone.
