This project started as a hope in 2003 when federal funding was initially identified and allocated for this project. Since that time, substantial effort was expended by the State and Federal partners to capture sufficient funding to get the project underway. In 2014, Livingston Parish signed a contract with Forte and Tablada, to begin topographic surveys, environmental efforts, and to begin laying the groundwork for the project design. In 2015, the project was picked up by the Department of Transportation which administers the federal funding, in connection with other funding sources and design was able to begin.
The Cook road improvements project was in the design phase during the Great Flood of 2016 that so greatly affected the residents of the Parish. With the huge impact that disaster had on the area, and especially the residents of the area, it was now of the highest importance to ensure that the proposed project would not have any detrimental impact should something like that happen again. In the weeks and months after the flood, the Parish, Forte and Tablada, and DOTD looked at this project through a new lens. DOTD, Forte and Tablada, and Livingston Parish worked together to determine an appropriate re-design of the roadway elevation to better accommodate those new, and unprecedented concerns.
After that very difficult time, the project team and Parish continued to work through numerous obstacles to bring this project to reality, years later. While these projects never move as fast as one would hope or maybe even expect, the project team took great care to make sure this project minimizes the negative impacts to neighbors.
In January of 2022, the project was finally ‘let’ for public bid, and construction is now underway.