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DOTD outlines $1.12 billion highway priority program, emphasizes preservation and data-driven selection
Summary
At an Oct. 23 Senate Transportation hearing in Baton Rouge, DOTD highway program engineer Mary Elliott said Louisiana’s FY2025–26 Highway Priority Program is estimated at about $1.12 billion, with roughly 84% allocated to preservation, operations, safety and capacity. She described a decentralized, data-plus-stakeholder selection process and cited Revised Statute Title 48 §229.1 as governing priorities.
Mary Elliott, DOTD’s highway program engineer, told the Senate Transportation Committee on Oct. 23 that Louisiana’s proposed Highway Priority Program for state fiscal year 2025–26 is about $1,120,000,000 and will be guided by preservation, operations, safety, capacity and local public-assistance goals. The presentation outlined how DOTD balances technical metrics and stakeholder input when choosing projects.
Elliott said the state highway system includes roughly 16,000 centerline route miles, including 943 interstate miles, and thousands of fixed and movable bridges DOTD inspects and for which it administers funding. She said funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) boosted annual highway and bridge funding by about $200,000,000 — roughly a 25% increase — and created new discretionary programs for bridge rehabilitation, resiliency, and carbon-reduction projects.
Under DOTD’s proposed discretionary program Elliott listed approximate allocations: $526,000,000 for system preservation, $101,000,000 for operations/motorist services, $74,000,000 for safety and $246,000,000 for capacity projects. She said the $246 million for capacity is targeted to several “mega projects” that are funded from dedicated sources such as BP settlement funds, vehicle sales tax revenues established by Act/House Bill 514, the I‑49 South leverage fund, and ARPA. Elliott also said $172,000,000 is earmarked for nondiscretionary and local public‑agency (LPA) projects, which DOTD administers but for which local governments must apply and typically share maintenance responsibility.
Elliott described DOTD’s two methods for identifying projects: (1) analysis of data on pavement and bridge condition, traffic volumes, crash history, and congestion; and (2) customer input gathered year-round from the public, local elected officials, MPOs and other planning bodies and agencies. She said DOTD uses a decentralized approach in which districts and MPOs rank projects before project selection teams — composed of DOTD headquarters staff and outside agency representatives — make final selections.
Elliott cited Revised Statute Title 48, Section 229.1, noting that DOTD must consider eight objectives (including bringing highways into a state of good repair, improving safety, increasing accessibility and intermodal connectivity) and eight factors (condition, traffic type and volume, crash records, design time, and need). She said those statutory factors align with DOTD’s program goals and are applied during selection.
On program timing, Elliott said the project selection team will resume work in May and legislative public hearings for FY2026–27 are expected in October or November 2025; she reported that 203 requests had been submitted during the past three hearings, 125 requests appear in program stages for FY2025–26 and 55 projects have let to construction. Elliott emphasized that the proposed highway priority program is a draft that the House and Senate transportation committees will review and that the final decision rests with the Legislature.
The committee asked follow-up questions about program mechanics, federal funding timelines, and metrics for capacity projects. Elliott reiterated that capacity is one factor considered — including parish-level population growth and economic development metrics — but said recent legislative direction emphasized preservation before new capacity where funding is constrained. The hearing packet described the program in three parts: (1) projects scheduled for construction in FY2025–26, (2) projects in development, and (3) projects identified as needed but without an identified funding source.
Elliott urged stakeholders to submit suggestions in writing (with name for the record) and noted that the DOTD website and the handout spine the committee distributed contain the detailed project lists and contact information. The program described at the hearing will be the basis for the joint committee’s recommendation to the Legislature when session begins.
