Saying the choice for a route to link Interstate 12 and Bush in northeastern St. Tammany Parish “couldn’t be worse,” Parish President Pat Brister nonetheless said Friday that she will work with the Army Corps of Engineers to see the highway to fruition. “It is a bit disconcerting that a federal agency can determine where a highway is built in this parish,” Brister said a day after the corps revealed it had chosen a route known as Alternative Q for the future, four-lane Louisiana 3241. “But we will continue to work with the corps. We have no other choice.”
Brister said the lack of balance between the concerns for the environment and the realities of the situation is troublesome. She cited as another recent example of her concerns the recent decision by the corps to switch to a new method for calculating impacts to wetlands, which is multiplying the cost of mitigation to public agencies and private developers.
“You sometimes have to put the human need in the mix, not just the environmental need,” Brister said, calling the highway a “lifeline” for the people who travel between Washington Parish to I-12. “I just don’t see that coming from the corps.”
The 19.8-mile Alternative Q begins at the intersection of Louisiana 21 and Louisiana 41 in Bush, follows an abandoned railroad corridor, then continues southeast, takes a jog southwest and connects with Louisiana 434 near Lacombe.
Brister said the chosen route is the worst one for several reasons, not the least of which is the fact that it runs directly though the St. Tammany Parish Coroner’s Office’s brand-new, $4 million building, which sits on Louisiana 434 between I-12 and Louisiana 36. Coroner Peter Galvan did not return a call Friday for comment.
The route also travels a path that takes it through a large section of the parking lot for the Louisiana Heart Hospital on Louisiana 434, as well as a park-and-ride facility that is under construction by the parish, she said.
Further, it runs through a piece of property owned by the St. Tammany Parish School Board that is designated for a future school and property owned by Weyerhaeuser that is slated for future residential development, Brister said.
The parish, as well as the state Department of Transportation and Development, had preferred a route known as Alternative P, which would have run 17.4 miles through the center of St. Tammany Parish.
It was to begin at the intersection of Louisiana 40 and Louisiana 41 in Bush, follow the railroad corridor for a few miles to Talisheek, turn southwest for 13 miles and connect with I-12 at Louisiana 1088 near Mandeville.
Officials had believed the shorter route would have provided greater traffic relief, particularly from Louisiana 21 and Louisiana 59. Yet, the highway department also has pledged to work with the corps to get the road completed.
“(The department) is disappointed that our preferred alignment, option P, was not selected,” said Dustin Annison, a DOTD spokesman. “But, after two decades of delay we are ready to move forward. We are committed to protecting and preserving St. Tammany Parish’s investment in new facilities along the corps-approved route. We have already begun discussion with the corps to adjust the alignment to bypass the parish’s new facilities.”
Brister said she understands that the state can modify the route to avoid the facilities, but the plan then would have to return to the corps and possibly go through another round of public hearings, causing even further delay in a project more than two decades in the making and still another 10 years from a possible construction start.
The project still requires environmental permits before the state can build it. The state Department of Environmental Quality must issue a Water Quality Certification and a wetland impact mitigation plan that meets the approval of the corps.
