Louisiana Highway 1 (LA1) is a critical corridor for the national energy supply. The facility serves Port Fourchon, which is the logistics base for offshore oil and gas exploration and production in nearly the entire Gulf of Mexico.
Over the years, the highway has become increasingly vulnerable to closure from hurricanes, tropical storms, and even minor storms in conjunction with high tides. The underlying cause of the increasing vulnerability is a combination of subsidence, sea level rise, and coastal erosion. Forecasts from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration indicate that the frequency of closure will rise substantially in the future.
REMI will be joined on Tuesday, August 25th from 2:00 to 3:00 p.m. (ET) by Deputy Secretary Eric Kalivoda, Ph.D. and Transportation Planning Engineer John Fu, Ph.D. from the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development for their special guest webinar, “Providing Resilience and Economic Vitality through Transportation Investments: A Case Study of Louisiana Highway 1.”
Dr. Kalivoda and Dr. Fu will be reviewing their analysis that aimed to estimate the impact of implementing LA1’s Phase 2 on Louisiana’s economy, as well as the national economy. The first phase elevated the initial nine-mile section of the highway in 2012, leaving an eight-mile section to be elevated as part of the second phase to provide secure passage from Port Fourchon to within the hurricane protection levee in the Town of Golden Meadow.
This webinar presentation will also explain the desire to quantify the economic impacts of Phase 2 implementation as closures of LA1 sometimes disrupt and hinder oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico.
