White ribbon of new LA 1 taking shape near Fourchon
Additionally, plans are under way to start right-of-way (ROW) acquisition for the initial stretch of Phase 2 of the project, which will constitute 8.3 mi of elevated road from Golden Meadow southward to Leeville, Boulet says. This section will cost an estimated $260 million, including the ROW acquisition, a survey, and possible re-routing of active pipelines crossing beneath the road’s path, and the actual construction. This longer highway section also will pass through extremely environmentally vulnerable marshland, hence the heightened cost.
“The state is scheduled to finalize what ROW will be needed,” Boulet says. “We will know by August exactly what properties they will need to build the section. The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD) has submitted a capital outlay grant application for the ROW acquisition to the state’s bonding commission, which approves major construction projects that are funded by bonds.”
Digging out the pipelines
Meanwhile, an important facet of the Phase 2 ROW issue is lining up state funding for dealing with moving or deepening any underground pipelines that exist in the Phase 2 ROW, he says.
“We know that several lines do cross beneath it, and some of them may require route alteration or deepening in order to meet federal highway standards.” However, a relatively significant challenge exists in identification of no longer active or “dead” pipelines that pass through the ROW, he says.
“We’re working with all the current property owners now, but the problem is that many of the oil and gas transmission companies that existed in the 1950s through the 1970s and even 1980s were bought out by larger companies who themselves were later acquired. Many of the surviving companies are not sure exactly where the lines are located.”
The LA 1 Coalition anticipates the state will have to appropriate some $4 million to $5 million in pipe removal and line relocation funds, since in Louisiana the cost of relocating utilities and pipeline infrastructure from any new highway ROW is a state responsibility.
According to Boulet, LA 1 from US 90 to Port Fourchon in one or more ways currently services over 50% of the mobile rigs and fixed and floating production facilities in the entire US Gulf of Mexico, and over 90% of deepwater facilities Also, he notes, Port Fourchon is the host for the Louisiana Offshore Port (LOOP) Booster Station, whose tanker-unloading buoy is located in the open Gulf, making LOOP the only US port capable of handling the crude oil cargoes of ultra large crude carriers and very large crude carriers. The oil comes ashore by pipeline near Port Fourchon and is stored in the nearby Galliano Salt Dome. From there, LOOP pipelines are connected to over 50% of the nations’ refineries.
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Volume 68 Issue 3
March 2008
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