BATON ROUGE – The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD) and the Plaquemines Parish President’s Office hosted a ribbon cutting ceremony on Monday, February 21, marking the completion of the four-laning of LA 23 in Plaquemines Parish. Benny Rousselle, Plaquemine Parish President, served as Master of Ceremonies for the event, which took place at the Plaquemines Parish Maintenance Building, located on LA 23, Belle Chasse Highway.

            As the only hurricane evacuation route for lower Plaquemines Parish, the completion of the widening of LA 23 is a significant accomplishment.

This project involved the widening of 1.97 miles of roadway on LA 23 in the town of West Pointe a la Hache (between Belle Chasse and Port Sulpher). This included the construction of two lanes of concrete pavement for southbound traffic and the resurfacing of the existing roadway, now exclusively for northbound traffic. The project also included the construction of turn lanes onto Ferry Road.       

            In addition to Rousselle, remarks were given by Cedric Grant, DOTD Deputy Secretary and Dr. Fran Patti, former Louisiana State Representative. Reverend Darnelle Smith provided the Invocation and the Benediction, and the New Orleans Naval Air Station/ Joint Reserve Base Color Guard conducted the Presentation of the Colors.

            Barriere Construction Co. was the contractor for the project. The DOTD Project Engineer was Nelson Capote. Construction began in October 2004 and was completed in February 2005.