By Tom Kelly
Editor and Publisher

After suffering loss of jobs, population, and political clout over the 60 to 70 year period beginning with the Great Depression, North Louisiana may be feeling the tide of change, as the three north-south U.S. highways serving the region break out of their old bounds into modern four-lane arteries.

All up and down the routes of U.S. 165, U.S. 167, and U.S. 171 the four-laning program is well underway, as the $4 billion improvement program called TIMED moves toward the reconstruction of 557 miles of highways connecting South, Central, and North Louisiana with the two east-west Interstates, and thus with markets throughout the Middle South.

TIMED--that's bureaucratic short-hand for Transportation Infrastructure Model for Economic Development--is the single largest transportation program in Louisiana history, and promises to open North Louisiana to a prospect for a kind of development which has not been possible in the past.

Longest of the projects is U.S. 165, which runs 162 miles diagonally from southwest to northeast, from Interstate Highway 10 at Fenton just east of Lake Charles, via Alexandria, Monroe, and Bastrop to the Arkansas state line. The Highway 165 widening is divided into 31 segments, at a total estimated cost of $891 million. Overall, the project was at 23 percent complete as of March, 2005.

In North Louisiana, several segments from the Pineville Expressway north between Alexandria and Monroe are complete, or under construction. The communities of Grayson and Columbia in Caldwell parish are presently suffering congestion and relocation of services as widening of the route moves forward. In Columbia, the 1930s era drawbridge across the Ouachita River is being replaced by a higher span.

Highway 167 four-laning runs from the intersection with Pineville Expressway north to the Arkansas state line north of Lillie, at an estimated cost of $668 million. The route improvement is in 22 segments, and is at 18 percent completion.

Major work currently underway is in Winnfield, where a railroad bridge constructed in 1938 is being replaced by a five-lane overpass, and where the route has taken out two city blocks of 1930s business buildings to veer diagonally to connect with the westbound five-lane on the south side of the Winn Parish court house.

Relocation of Highway 167 in Jonesboro is completed, and work is underway on segments north of Jonesboro and between Quitman and Ruston.

Highway 171 in western Louisiana runs 123 miles from Interstate 10 at Newton east of Lake Charles to connect with Interstate 10 at Shreveport. Total project cost is estimated at $599 million, and is estimated currently at 36 percent complete.

Major work is now underway south and north of Many in Sabine parish. The first segment from Zwolle to Noble is completed and was dedicated in 2003.

The TIMED program is funded by a four-cents per gallon tax on gasoline, established in 1989 and in effect until all TIMED projects are finished, estimated to be by 2010.

At the beginning of the program, the program was on a pay-as-collected basis, but is now accelerated by using tax collections to fund bond issues making it possible to build the roads years sooner.

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