(The Center Square) — About $4.4 million will flow to various transportation infrastructure and flood control needs throughout Louisiana as part of $31 million in federal investments through the Delta Regional Authority.
The authority on Thursday announced the awards for the Lower Mississippi Delta and Alabama Black Belt regions that will fund a 34 projects, which are projected to create or retain a total of 1,400 jobs.
Funding for the program was included in the infrastructure law approved by Congress in 2021.
“By improving the infrastructure across Louisiana, we are building an economy for 2050,” Sen. Bill Cassidy said in a statement. “The Infrastructure Law ensures that our communities get the funds needed to make these improvements, and because I had a seat at the table, our communities are receiving more than their fair share of this funding.”
Louisiana will receive a total of $4.4 million from the authority’s Community Infrastructure Fund for seven projects.
They include $206,000 for a new sewage treatment plant in Chalmette, $509,000 to renovate Urania’s sewage treatment plant, and $1 million to construct a rail spur to provide service to the Port of Columbia.
Another $1.2 million will go to the Central Louisiana Regional Port in Alexandria for an electrical substation and to expand infrastructure, while Hodge will receive more than $752,000 to extend and overlay First Street.
More than $2.4 million will go to Monroe to widen and upgrade about a mile of two-lane road, and another $2 million is heading to New Iberia to design and construct a 200,000-square-foot hangar for aircraft rehabilitation — converting passenger planes to cargo planes.
The authority, established in 2000 for joint federal-state collaboration on economic development in the lower Mississippi and Alabama Black Belt regions, also awarded about $6.2 million to Alabama for eight projects, $5.7 million to Arkansas for seven projects, $5.6 million to Mississippi for eight, $2.7 million to Illinois for two, $1.8 million to Kentucky for one, and $876,000 to Missouri for one project.
“The Community Infrastructure Fund is one of DRA’s most unique tools that allows us to expand and invest in the resiliency of the region’s public infrastructure,” the authority’s Federal Co-Chairman Corey Wiggins said in a statement. “As a result of this investment, over 12,000 families will have improved access to infrastructure, helping to improve their quality of life and increase economic opportunities in their communities.”
