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Committee flags missing Hooper Road priority funding as state capital outlay list released
Summary
At its July 13 meeting the Livingston Parish Master Plan Review Committee reviewed the state capital outlay list and raised concerns that the Hooper Road extension/widening did not appear with guaranteed priority funding; members also discussed a separate I‑12 overpass project and its estimated funding breakdown.
The Livingston Parish Master Plan Review Committee on July 13 examined the State Finance Committee’s capital outlay information and raised concerns that the Hooper Road extension and widening project serving east Livingston Parish and parts of East Baton Rouge was not shown with guaranteed priority funding. A committee member who presented the report said the list mixes priority categories and that the project’s total needs are not fully protected in the published list.
The presenter said, “It’s the Hooper Road extension and widening — environmental planning, engineering, right‑of‑way, utility construction — and prior to priority funding it’s $7,500,000,” and added that the state list includes priority 1, 2 and 5 amounts combined. The presenter noted that priority‑1 and priority‑2 accounts are effectively guaranteed while priority‑5 is a non‑guaranteed amount that, in the presenter’s words and citing a local legislator’s phrasing, functions as a “wish list.”
Why it matters: committee members said clear identification of which portion of a project is in priority 1 or 2 is important for budgeting and for persuading state legislators to move projects forward; without separated priorities, only a fraction of the listed total may actually be funded.
The meeting also covered details of the I‑12 Walker area overpass project. The presenter described planned cloverleaf interchanges north and south of the overpass and multi‑lane widening extending to Buddy Ellis Road and Jo Mae Road. For that project the presenter gave a funding breakdown he described as: priority 1 approximately $3,700,000; priority‑5 about $28,000,000; and a $6,000,000 allocation from nonrecurring state general funds — together amounting to roughly $37,000,000 for the work discussed.
Committee members and the chair said the I‑12 improvements align with a DOTD master plan adopted in 2015 and called completion of the overpass a late but necessary step to help other projects progress. One committee member offered to bring plan drawings to a future meeting for members to review in hard copy.
What’s next: presenters urged the committee to keep its parish transportation priority list current and to present a single, up‑to‑date package to the infrastructure committee and parish council so state legislators can more readily identify priority‑eligible projects.
Attribution: quotes and specific project figures above come from remarks by a committee member presenting the capital outlay summary and related project descriptions at the July 13 meeting.
