For the last year, Gov. Jeff Landry and state lawmakers have been calling for fundamental change at the and Development, demanding quicker fixes to the state’s road and bridge problems.
This week, legislators from both parties overwhelmingly approved a intended to institute their demands. Proponents call it a major step toward reforming an agency they’ve accused of being historically unresponsive and underperforming.
DOTD will soon be slated to undergo a significant reorganization through a plan laid out in House Bills 528, 556 and 640, all sponsored by Rep. Ryan Bourriaque, R-Abbeville.
A spokesperson for Landry on Tuesday confirmed the governor intends to sign the measures into law.
Legislative leaders and Landry this spring had listed overhauling DOTD as a top priority for the legislative session.
But major change at the department has been more than a year in the making after Landry, just months into his administration, ordered his transportation chief to figure out how to reform the department.
An analysis of DOTD by consulting firm BCG stemming from that order found last year that the agency would need more than $1 billion annually to achieve major infrastructure goals and faces major challenges related to timely project delivery and talent retention.
Now, under the reform package, a new division within the department called the Office of Transformation will be in charge making the agency operate more efficiently.
And a brand-new agency — completely separate from and independent of DOTD — will be created and called the Office of h Highway Construction.
That office will be required to plan, construct, maintain and fix any state roads that don’t qualify for federal funding.
There are about 4,800 miles of those smaller state routes, which include three categories of roadways: rural local, urban local and rural minor collector roads.
“Minor collectors” gather traffic from local roads and direct it to major thoroughfares. Local roads primarily provide direct access to homes and businesses.
The new highway office will be run by an executive director appointed by the governor and will be housed in the Division of Administration, an agency that serves as the operating arm of state government. It’s unclear what the highway office’s budget will be or how many employees will work there.
The transportation department is currently responsible for more than 17,000 miles of roads.
At DOTD, the agency’s organizational chart will change.
A new Office of Project Delivery will oversee both engineering and project delivery, functions that are currently housed in separate divisions.
That office will now be required by law to “maximize to the fullest extent possible the privatization of services.”
The Office of Transformation will also be a new division at the department, with an official directive to “implement strategies and initiatives designed to enhance operational efficiency.”
While it doesn’t carry the weight of law, the Legislature also passed a resolution that formalizes several priorities related to plans for DOTD moving forward.
Under HCR 45, the Office of Transformation will have to recommend improvements to project delivery, the DOTD district offices and bridge maintenance, among other things, and report those recommendations to the Legislature by next spring.
“Many of the items highlighted as priorities in the HCR will be the basis for agendas and discussions of the Transportation committee in the coming months,” Bourriaque said last week.
He also said the Office of Transformation will work to determine which DOTD functions should be shifted to the private sector.
The law will now require DOTD to “maximize third-party contracts” for its maintenance of the state highway system, and there will be no limitations on the agency’s ability to contract with outside consultants for services.
While the plan passed by the Legislature appears to be more broad framework than detailed instruction manual, both Bourriaque, who chairs the House transportation committee, and Senate transportation committee chair Patrick Connick, R-Marrero, have signaled that more concrete plans are in the works.
Connick both last week and again on the Senate floor this week called the legislative package “just the first step in ensuring taxpayer dollars are spent wisely and that every level of DOTD is performing in a manner that is responsive to the people of h.”
Bourriaque said his committee “looks forward to the continued collaboration with the department and key stakeholders to improve the way we address our infrastructure.”