Louisiana Statewide Transportation Plan Update

Everyone in Louisiana relies on transportation. Whether it is to move products to market, to fly into a city to attend a conference, to travel to work, or ride a bike to a park, transportation is involved. In the next 30 years, Louisiana's economic health and quality of life may be at risk because of transportation funding challenges. Costs of providing infrastructure and services are up, but revenue is down. Maintaining what already exists continues to take a larger portion of available funds, leaving limited opportunities for addressing other significant transportation needs. This situation calls for a comprehensive look at how transportation can best address Louisiana's needs in the long-term under the influence of the current economic climate. In short, what type of transportation investments will best serve Louisiana?

Background

In December 2003 the Louisiana Statewide Transportation Plan completed by the Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD) was adopted by the Louisiana Investment in Infrastructure for Economic Prosperity (LIIEP) Commission. The Plan, which included extensive participation and input from agencies and major stakeholders throughout the state, addressed multimodal transportation needs within the context of a growing economy. A few years later, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita redefined needs. As a result, a Review and Status report was completed in 2008 that considered the impacts of the storms and reported on the implementation status and updated construction costs of the 2003 Plan recommendations.

Since then, Louisiana, as well as the rest of the United States, has felt the consequences of the economic recession and limited transportation funding. It is time for a full update of the transportation plan to determine the most appropriate transportation investments and policies for Louisiana.

An overview of the plan and how public involvement activities are reflected in general are described in the plan overview. Additional details on public involvement are provided in the next section.

Plan Public Involvement Activities

The Plan's Public Involvement Plan provides the framework for obtaining input and providing information to the stakeholders and general public.

Visioning Workshop - A Visioning Workshop was held in November 2012 to craft a draft vision, goals and objectives to be reviewed in the first Round Of Advisory Council meetings held in March 2013.

Round One Advisory Council Meetings – Each of the eight Advisory Councils met during the period March 20-21, 2013 to learn about the Plan Update and to discuss specific issues relative to policy recommendations and transportation investments. More information about these meetings is available at Round One Advisory Council meetings.

Plan Status

The current Plan outreach activities relate to identifying key issues and concerns by reaching out to the legislature in a questionnaire and the general public via a telephone survey. This information was used in the Visioning Workshop held in November 2012. Summaries of all three activities are included in the Interim Plan Documents section.

Interim Plan Documents

As Plan documents are prepared they will be posted here for review. To date, these include:

Plan Overview Public Involvement Plan

Surveys

Legislative Questionnaire Summary

Public Telephone Survey Summary

Visioning Workshop

Visioning Workshop Presentation

Visioning Workshop Summary

Tentative Schedule

The Plan is to be completed and adopted by early 2014. The following table depicts a schedule marked by the major public involvement activities.

How to Participate/Contact Us

• To be added to a mailing list to receive notices when information on the web site is updated, click here.
• If you want to offer any comments on the Plan process, interim posted documents or on the draft Plan when it is included on the website, click here.