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The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (LDOTD), in cooperation
with the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), is conducting the
environmental analyses and engineering required to upgrade the US
90 corridor from Lafayette, LA to New Orleans, LA to a full control
of access facility meeting interstate highway design standards as
I-49. The development of I-49, which connects Kansas City with New
Orleans, is a multi-state effort to provide a continuous interstate
highway corridor between Louisiana, the central United States, and
central Canada.
The overall effort between Lafayette and New Orleans has been designated
I-49 South for planning purposes. I-49 South, or Future I-49,
as it also is known, would connect the interchange of I-49
and I-10 in Lafayette with I-10 in New Orleans, a distance
of 150 miles.
US 90 is an integral component of the federal highway network, serving
as an element of the National Highway System (NHS). US 90
serves an important role by linking local and regional transportation
networks. However, the portion of existing US 90 in the project
area does not provide the geometry or infrastructure to adequately
accommodate local and regional transportation demand in the
safest manner possible, both now and in the future. Thus,
the purpose of the proposed project is to upgrade this highway
segment to increase capacity, and to improve safety and efficiency
during normal operations as well as during a coastal evacuation
event.
The current project, Raceland to the Westbank Expressway, includes 38.6 miles
of interstate highway comprised of 36.3 miles of I-49 and 2.3 miles of an extension
to I-310. Click here or on the toolbar to the left
to see the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for this project.
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