[BR Today]

From "Central City News", by Woody Jenkins, Editor

Leaders of the Baton Rouge Loop went to Austin last week to study Hwy 183A, a 12 mile long toll road that eases traffic on I-35.

Unfortunately, there are not many comparisons to make between Hwy 183A and the proposed loop around Baton Rouge. I-35 has a daily traffic count of 250,000 vehicles and cost $230 million to build. The Central Texas Mobility Authority estimates that in 2008 the Hwy 183A toll road will average 33,700 transactions a day, producing a total revenue of $10.3 million a year.

The proposed Baton Rouge Loop would be 90-100 miles long and cost $4 billion. If all $4 billion were financed by tax-free bonds at an interest rate of 6%, it would take $240 million a year in tolls just to pay the interest.

With about 100,000 cars a day on I-10 and I-12 in Baton Rouge, we might very optimistically estimate 20,000 cars a day using the Baton Rouge Loop. At $3.00 per vehicle, the toll would produce $22 million a year in revenue before deducting operating expenses.

It is difficult to come up with any scenario that would allow tolls to pay the interest of the $4 billion debt which would be incurred in building the Baton Rouge Loop.

Of course, tolls would also have to pay the expense of operating the Loop and amortizing the $4 billion principal.

The Austin toll road was built mostly on open prairie land, but the Baton Rouge Loop would pass through countless subdivisions. Many thousands of pieces of land would have to be expropriated. That raises at least two constitutional issues. The Louisiana Constitution prohibits the taking of private property and then turning that property over to a private, for-profit entity. In addition, the state constitution provides that when a taking of private property is done by a private, for-profit entity, the necessity of the taking is a judicial issue. That could raise a multitude of issues which could affect the choice of routes, the amount of land taken, and indeed the necessity of the entire project.

Austin's Hwy 183A ends up having little relevance to the proposed Baton Rouge Loop.