Copyright Baton Rouge Advocate
Extreme weather, chronic underfunding and age are conspiring to keep Louisiana's infrastructure falling behind "current and future needs" despite recent federal investments, a national engineering society analysis released Wednesday says. The American Society of Civil Engineers reached this conclusion and rated all state infrastructure with a "C-" in its new report card, though roads and drinking water systems were given a "D" and bridges a "D+" grade. The overall "C-" represents a slight improvement from what the society concluded in its 2017 analysis, but the group said the 2025 grade still means "Louisiana’s built environment is not keeping pace," as infrastructure continues to age and is affected "by limited resources and increasingly frequent severe weather events." The national average was a "C." The society noted that the state has experienced 36 extreme weather events over the past decade that resulted in $200 billion in damages statewide. While the society acknowledged that some areas have made strides, a member of the engineering society argued more needed to be done. "The people of Louisiana require infrastructure networks that are as resilient as the people they serve, to keep families safe and businesses operational," Katherine Castille, an engineer who is the society's Louisiana president, said in a statement Wednesday. "The improved grade in this report demonstrates the hard work our public and private sectors have done to modernize our built environment, but we know Louisiana is capable of far better than a ‘C-’ when provided additional resources and a dedicated workforce." In 2017, the society gave Louisiana a "D+" grade. State highway officials and Gov. Jeff Landry's office didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. 'Need for continual maintenance' The society analysis detailed in the 140-page report looked at a wide sweep of public and private infrastructure, from the familiar roads and bridges to ports, airports, dams, levees, drinking water and sewage treatment systems, as well as coastal protection work. Grades for Louisiana aviation, coastal areas and drinking water improved compared with the 2017 grades, but the state’s dams, ports and wastewater systems received lower marks. None was higher than a "C+" grade. Since the 2017 report, Louisiana has been the beneficiary of post-COVID economic stimulus packages under President Biden that have sent $750 million for public water and sewer systems and $5.9 billion for roads and bridges. Funding, however, remained a problem in all the categories analyzed. The society also concluded that without enough money to go around, the state needed to find a way to be selective and impactful. In trying to build in greater resiliency to storms, for instance, the society said the state should improve currently lacking data "that could guide the best use of limited funds." The report noted that Louisiana has spent $1.62 billion annually to fight coastal erosion on a combined 150 projects to try to protect 2 million coastal residents and oil and gas infrastructure. But millions of wetland acres still need restoration, with the billions related to the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon spill are set to expire in six years. The state has major road and bridge projects under construction, including improvements on I-10 and at the I-10/I-12 split in Baton Rouge. But the society pointed out that Louisiana roads and bridges still have a $33 billion maintenance and capital improvement backlog combined, a rising figure affected not only by continuing demands but also by inflated material and other costs over the past several years. The society noted that 11.5% of Louisiana's nearly 12,700 bridges are rated as being in "poor" condition, which is an improvement since 2018 due to maintenance and repair efforts, but the figure is still nearly double the national average. In that same time period, the share of bridges rated in "good condition" has steadily fallen, pushing the majority of state bridges into "fair" condition. "This trend means the overall condition of bridges continues to decline, reflecting the increasing overall aging of our infrastructure and the need for continual maintenance," the report says. Congestion hits drivers Louisiana highways and bridges rely on a 20-cent-per-gallon state sales tax that has lost two-thirds of its purchasing power since it was last raised in the late 1980s. The state road tax has seen total revenues decline due to greater gasoline engine efficiency and electric vehicles.
