WHAT:           Press conference to announce Work Zone Awareness Week in Louisiana, May 16-27, 2005

WHEN:           9 a.m. Thursday, May 26, 2005

WHERE:         La. DOTD Headquarters lobby

                        1201 Capitol Access Road, Baton Rouge

WHO:             La. Department of Transportation and Development, Federal Highway Administration, Louisiana State Police, Association of General Contractors

WHY:              Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco has declared the last two weeks of May as an extended Work Zone Awareness Week. La. DOTD will dedicate the National Work Zone Awareness Cone Memorial in honor of lives lost in work zones nationally. The department also will host the National Work Zone Memorial Wall in its headquarters lobby. Enforcement will be the theme of this year’s Work Zone Awareness Week.  Louisiana State Police will unveil its radio PSA aimed at urging drivers to obey posted speed limits in work zones or “pay up.”

Press conference speakers include:

Kenneth Perret, assistant secretary, DOTD Office of Planning and Programming

William A. Sussmann, Louisiana Division administrator, Federal Highway Administration

Col. Henry Whitehorn, superintendent, Louisiana State Police

Ken Naquin, executive director of occupational divisions, Association of General Contractors