Today, Louisiana and Arkansas state officials gathered in Texarkana to cut the ribbon on the Interstate 49 North Corridor that connects northern Shreveport, LA to the Arkansas state line, concluding years of construction and decades of planning. When the entire Interstate is complete, it will link Lafayette, La to Kansas City, Mo by way of Alexandria, Natchitoches, Shreveport, Texarkana, and western Arkansas. Baton Rouge and New Orleans will be easily accessible via the existing east-west I-10. The Missouri leg is complete, and construction is underway in Arkansas, some portions of which are already finished.
Even though the project has reached the state line in Louisiana, construction in Louisiana is far from over. A ten-mile gap, which spans from I-20 to the south to Old Mooringsport Road to the north, still exists. Five and a quarter of those miles – between the southernmost end of the North Corridor and I-220 (aka Segments J and K) – are expected to open as early as 2016, but the fate of the section that will connect from I-220 to I-20 has yet to be decided.
When the gap from the bottom of the North Corridor to I-220 is complete in the next few years, motorists wishing to take I-49 through Shreveport will still have to take a detour. The first option means taking I-20 and then onto I-220 to get back on 49 north of town, taking nearly 14 miles to traverse what would be a five mile gap. Alternatively, drivers could choose to go off the interstate system onto local roads through downtown and up Highway 80 to 220 – a more direct path, but one full of stoplights and city traffic. Both pose a significant problem from an investment standpoint, considering the nearly two thirds of a billion dollars for the North Corridor in the costs of studies, planning, land acquisition, and construction, with a the Inner City Corridor projected at a cool $300 million.
The question of whether to route I-49 through or around the heart of Shreveport has been a hotly-contested one. Currently, the Louisiana DOTD does not have exact plans slated for this segment, but the I-49 Coalition website shows that it is on the agenda. I-49Shreveport.com shows that the segment is in Stage 1 which includes traffic monitoring, environmental studies, and more. Proponents of the preservation of Ledbetter Heights, Allendale, and Martin Luther King neighborhoods, areas that house a great number of low-income or underprivileged families, oppose a direct cut-through citing hardship and historic preservation as reasons to re-route the proposed development. In fact, the Shreveport City Council approved a 120-unit affordable housing development in the inner city that is currently under construction despite opposition from state representatives.
Studies have been conducted on routes (Warning: Big PDF) through Shreveport’s inner city but, so far as we can tell, no plan has emerged on top.
What do you think? Should I-49 be routed through the inner city, or is the long way ’round better? Sound off in the comments below.
Article photo courtesy of Jonathan Toups.