The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD) is a
state
State may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Literature
* ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State
* ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States
* ''Our S ...
government organization in the United States, in charge of maintaining
public transportation
Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typical ...
, roadways, bridges, canals, select levees, floodplain management, port facilities, commercial vehicles, and aviation which includes 69 airports, in the
U.S. state
In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...
of
Louisiana
Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...
. The agency has approximately five thousand personnel on staff and an
operating budget The operating budget contains the revenue and expenditure generated from the daily business functions of the company; see .
Edriaan Koening (N.D.What is Corporate Budgeting? chron.com
It concentrates on the operating expenditures, i.e.: cost of g ...
of $2.3 billion. DOTD operations are run through nine district offices across the state.
The current DOTD Secretary is Shawn D. Wilson, appointed in January 2016 by
Governor
A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...
John Bel Edwards
John Bel Edwards (born September 16, 1966) is an American politician and attorney serving as the 56th governor of Louisiana since 2016. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the Democratic leader of the Louisiana House of ...
. Other functions of the DOTD are Dams (Dam Safety Program), flood control (Floodplain Management, water resource management (wells), and maintaining state-run ferries and moveable bridge status. The Louisiana Transportation Authority (LTA) is also under the DOTD, as well as the DOTD port construction and development.
History
The Louisiana Highway Commission was established in 1921 under the administration of Governor
John M. Parker, who pushed for the establishment of more gravel roads throughout the state. Act 47 of 1940 under Governor
Sam Houston Jones
Samuel Houston Jones (July 15, 1897 – February 8, 1978) was the 46th Governor of Louisiana for the term from 1940 to 1944. He defeated the renowned Earl Kemp Long in the 1940 Democratic runoff primary election. Eight years later, Long the ...
reorganized the entire state government; under its provisions, the Department of Highways was designated as the successor to the old Highway Commission, and a director, appointed by the governor, was established as the executive head of the Department. Among the highway directors was Ray W. Burgess (1921–2006) of Baton Rouge, an appointee of Governor
Jimmie Davis. Highway workers were originally political appointees but later gained job security under state civil service. Act 47 also created the
Department of Public Works
This list indicates government departments in various countries dedicated to public works or infrastructure.
See also
* Public works
* Ministry or Board of Public Works, the imperial Chinese ministry overseeing public projects from the Tang ...
and transferred to that department the state's administrative functions involving
flood control
Flood control methods are used to reduce or prevent the detrimental effects of flood waters."Flood Control", MSN Encarta, 2008 (see below: Further reading). Flood relief methods are used to reduce the effects of flood waters or high water level ...
,
water management
Water resources are natural resources of water that are potentially useful for humans, for example as a source of drinking water supply or irrigation water. 97% of the water on the Earth is salt water and only three percent is fresh water; slight ...
, and
aeronautics
Aeronautics is the science or art involved with the study, design, and manufacturing of air flight–capable machines, and the techniques of operating aircraft and rockets within the atmosphere. The British Royal Aeronautical Society identifies ...
.
The new
Louisiana Constitution
The Louisiana Constitution is legally named the Constitution of the State of Louisiana and commonly called the Louisiana Constitution of 1974, and the Constitution of 1974. The constitution is the cornerstone of the law of Louisiana ensuring the ...
of 1976 (adopted in 1974) and Act 83 of 1977 abolished the Departments of Highways and Public Works and restructured them into the Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD), thereby encompassing related activities such as highways, public works, aviation, public transportation, and a number of transportation authorities, committees, boards, and commissions. This form of organization continued until 1988 when Act 488 placed all agency functions under one of three offices: the Office of the Secretary, the Office of Engineering, and the Office of Management and Finance.
Act 71 of 1998 reorganized DOTD into its present functional arrangement of the Office of the Secretary and five other offices.
DOTD district offices
The DOTD has 9 district offices across the state.
Each office is run by a district engineer administrator.
Public transportation
The DOTD is in charge of Public Transportation and provides funding to participating parishes through federal transit grant programs. These federal grants require local matching funds from participating parishes.
Grant Parish is the only parish in Louisiana not participating in some form of public transportation.
Roadways
DOTD has the responsibility of maintaining state highways and interstate highways under state jurisdiction. This includes the maintenance and updating of existing highways as well as planning, design, and building of new highways. DOTD is also in charge of the
bridge management system
A bridge management system (BMS) is a means for managing bridges throughout design, construction, operation and maintenance of the bridges. As funds available become tighter, road authorities around the world are facing challenges related to bridge ...
for planning and design, planning, building, inspection, maintenance, and even replacement of bridges in Louisiana.
The Transportation Infrastructure Model for Economic Development or TIMED Program is an ongoing $5 billion program, including funding to widen over of Louisiana state highways from two lanes to four. "TIMED" is also over construction or modifying several bridges including the
John James Audubon Bridge,
Huey P. Long Bridge and
Florida Avenue Bridge
The Florida Avenue Bridge is a vertical lift bridge spanning the Industrial Canal in New Orleans, Louisiana. The bridge has one railroad track, two vehicle lanes and two sidewalks. A parallel high-elevation four-lane roadway bridge is planned.
...
.
DOTD operates traffic cameras in eight cities along
Interstate 10
Interstate 10 (I-10) is the southernmost cross-country highway in the American Interstate Highway System. I-10 is the fourth-longest Interstate in the United States at , following I-90, I-80, and I-40. This freeway is part of the originally pl ...
and
Interstate 12
Interstate 12 (I-12) is an Interstate Highway located entirely within the U.S. state of Louisiana. It spans a total of in an east–west direction from I-10 in Baton Rouge to an interchange with both I-10 and I-59 in Slidell. Along the ...
as
intelligent transportation systems (ITS).
Hurricane evacuation
The DOTD has been active in addressing the increased awareness for effective evacuation plans in the event of hurricanes threatening southeast Louisiana, and the
Greater New Orleans
The New Orleans metropolitan area, designated the New Orleans–Metairie metropolitan statistical area by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, or simply Greater New Orleans (french: Grande Nouvelle-Orléans, es, Gran Nueva Orleans), is a me ...
area in particular. Following lessons learned during
Hurricane Georges
Hurricane Georges () was a powerful and long-lived Cape Verde Category 4 hurricane which caused severe destruction as it traversed the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico in September 1998, making eight landfalls along its path. Georges was the seve ...
in 1998 DOTD has constructed
contraflow lanes, crossover lanes, and made agreements with
Mississippi
Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...
officials to implement the contraflow plan in the event of future hurricane threats. This is a plan where all the traffic is directed in the same direction and marked with appropriate signs and signals. These plans were tested and modified following
Hurricane Ivan
Hurricane Ivan was a large, long-lived, Cape Verde hurricane that caused widespread damage in the Caribbean and United States. The cyclone was the ninth named storm, the sixth hurricane and the fourth major hurricane of the active 2004 Atlan ...
in 2004 as residents of the New Orleans area spent upwards of 18 hours in traffic. These changes included the strategic distribution of traffic control devices, improved coordination of police personnel, and wide distribution of information and maps to the public depicting the state's phased evacuation plan and the various contraflow routes. These changes were tested and successful in August 2005 when New Orleans and the surrounding parishes were placed under a mandatory evacuation in advance of
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina was a destructive Category 5 Atlantic hurricane that caused over 1,800 fatalities and $125 billion in damage in late August 2005, especially in the city of New Orleans and the surrounding areas. It was at the time the cost ...
.
Roadside vegetation
The DOTD has a department for roadside vegetation granted by Act No. 682 of the Regular Session of the State Legislature of 1989. There is a DOTD Chief Architect and a DOTD Chief Engineer and each district has a district roadside development coordinator. Mowing of interstate and Louisiana highways are under the jurisdiction of Roadside Development and all road construction and improvements are subject to inspection and approval.
The department adopted a manual that sets guidelines and rules for landscaping, wildflowers, mowing, and spraying herbicides and pesticides. The state has an aggressive stance on the preservation and planting of wildflowers. The guidelines state that mowing should be a minimum of three times a year on interstate highways and biannually on state highways. The
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) designated the Louisiana Department of Agriculture to enforce compliance of applicators of herbicides or pesticides with training provided by the Louisiana Extension program. The District Roadside Development Coordinator must be licensed by the state and be proficient in all aspects of pesticides and herbicides.
Ports and port facilities
The DOTD is the authority over ports and port facilities in Louisiana.
*
Louisiana Offshore Oil Port
The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP) is a deepwater port in the Gulf of Mexico 29 kilometers (18 nautical miles) off the coast of Louisiana near the town of Port Fourchon. LOOP provides tanker offloading and temporary storage services for cr ...
(LOOP) – the largest deepwater port in the United States, allowing oil supertankers to offload their cargo. Located offshore of
Port Fourchon, Louisiana
Port Fourchon is Louisiana’s southernmost port, located on the southern tip of Lafourche Parish, on the Gulf of Mexico. It is a seaport, with significant petroleum industry traffic from offshore Gulf oil platforms and drilling rigs as well as th ...
, 10% of imported crude oil is offloaded at LOOP.
*Some projects funded by TIMED are already complete, including projects that made improvements at the
Port of New Orleans
The Port of New Orleans is an embarkation port for cruise passengers. It is also Louisiana’s only international container port.
The port generates $100 million in revenue annually through its four lines of business – cargo (46%), rail (31%) ...
Canals, levees, and dams
DOTD operates and maintains the dam, water control structures, gates, spillway, and related appurtenances on 20 state-constructed reservoirs and is required to inspect all dams to ensure conformity with established standards and regulations. The department works closely with the
.
Floodplain Management
DOTD is the State Agency for the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). The state works in conjunction with FEMA on a 25%/75% ratio.
Aviation
The DOTD is responsible for monitoring 62 airports in the state. A completed TIMED project of the DOTD is the
Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport
Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (French: ''Aéroport international Louis Armstrong de La Nouvelle-Orléans'') is an international airport under Class B airspace in Kenner, Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, United States. It is o ...
.
Commercial vehicles
All commercial vehicles in the State of Louisiana are governed by the Dept of Public Safety.
Weights and standards
The DOTD division of "Weights and Standards" is the office responsible for vehicle oversize permits on Louisiana highways. DOTD considers there are twelve stationary scale house locations in the state but for most "Point of entry" (POE) locations and divided highways there is a scale house on each side of the road. When the scalehouse is open all trucks not equipped with "Prepass" or "Drivewyze" ''must'' enter the scale house if directed. Exceptions are scales that have
weigh in motion
Weigh-in-motion or weighing-in-motion (WIM) devices are designed to capture and record the axle weights and gross vehicle weights as vehicles drive over a measurement site. Unlike static scales, WIM systems are capable of measuring vehicles ...
scales. Dept of Public Safety enforcement officers (DPS) have portable scales and can weigh a vehicle anywhere it is safe.
Facilities
* Louisiana Transportation Research Center – a joint operation with
Louisiana State University
Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 nea ...
to provide research and education for transportation issues.
[ – Louisiana Transportation Research Center Official Site]
PERBA
The DOTD also maintains the Permits Electronic Routing Bridge Analysis (PERBA) that includes a "Trouble Board" of restricted roads throughout the state.
See also
*
Crescent City Connection Division
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Louisiana Department Of Transportation And Development
1921 establishments in Louisiana
Government agencies established in 1921
transport
Transport (in British English), or transportation (in American English), is the intentional movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land (rail and road), water, cable, pipeline, an ...
State departments of transportation of the United States
Transportation in Louisiana