Toll Options Narrowed

The Lafayette Metropolitan Expressway Commission will study whether tolls on a six-mile stretch of Interstate 49 will support construction of the portion of the highway in Lafayette.

Most of the four-lane highway from New Orleans to the Arkansas line east of Texarkana has been completed or is underway except for 136 miles from Lafayette to New Orleans.

The Department of Highways and Economic Development requested the study be limited to the elevated portion of the Interstate within the city.

The commission said the six-mile segment would cost $730 million.

A toll of $2 per vehicle would support $300 million of debt, with $430 million coming from a combination of federal, state, and local grants and taxes.

The group had been looking at tolls on an 18-mile stretch south of Lafayette, estimated to cost $1.4 billion, and a 37-mile segment from Lafayette through Iberia Parish, estimated to cost $1 billion.

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Transportation industry Louisiana
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