Since the 1970s, area residents have heard the debate surrounding a north/south highway and what it could mean to the economic future of this area.

Both sides seem to agree that Interstate 49 will be a boon to Shreveport-Bossier City and the rest of the state the disagreement seems to fall on how to connect the various completed segments through the Shreveport city limits.

Two camps have emerged. One suggests the best alternative is to route traffic from Arkansas into north Shreveport and merge it onto the existing Interstate 220 loop. That roadway would carry the traffic around the downtown area and remerge it with southbound interstate traffic in south Shreveport at Highway 3132 and I-49. The other faction believes the economic benefits to downtown would be bypassed if the loop route were chosen. They suggest a more direct path through some of the city’s oldest and, some assert, most historic areas.

Currently, the sections of I-49 from the Arkansas line south into the metropolitan area are taking shape. Several are open to traffic already, and others will soon follow. The disagreement on how to get the traffic through Shreveport to the southern continuation has spurred debate, acrimony and legal wrangling that has delayed the completion of the artery for 30 years according to District 2 State Representative, Roy Burrell. He said the project was hobbled three decades ago for a variety of reasons, and he was part of the group in opposition to punching the route directly through some of the city’s poorer neighborhoods.

Sister Margaret McCaffery, who headed Christian Services in the Ledbetter Heights community before she died, was opposed to the so-called inner-city route. The fear at that time, Burrell said, was that property owners would be evicted to make room for the interstate and not be compensated by the federal government sufficiently to allow them to acquire suitable housing to replace their condemned properties.

“I remember, because I was on the side of Sister Margaret then,” Burrell said. He has changed his mind in the intervening years, because, he said, he realized that the opposition was in some cases misinformed and in others guided by self-interest to preserve the status quo of the predominantly poor neighborhoods in question. He said those property owners were reluctant to give up rental property in the area, purely for personal financial reasons. “Naturally, they were against the inner-city piece because of the property they owned in the area. In other words, they would make more money off the way it existed then versus the federal government coming in and expropriating the property,” Burrell said.

In January 2013, the North Louisiana Council of Governments Metropolitan Planning Organization Transportation Policy Committee heard a report from Providence Engineering. Kerry Oriol, project manager for the I-49 Inner City connector study, told the group that of four proposed options for connecting I-49 through Shreveport, none stood out as less harmful. According to minutes of the January 17, 2013, meeting, she told the committee that 400 people had attended public meetings to discuss the routes. Half of those who indicated a preference thought the road should not go through the Ledbetter/Allendale/Lakeside neighborhoods.

Burrell told Forum that black communities have been affected by highway routing in the past. He specifically mentioned the Greenwood Acres and Cross Town neighborhoods that were dissected by the route of I-20 through Shreveport. Those neighborhoods were split, he said, and even became rivals on some issues following the construction.

Burrell said a new study indicates the inner-city connector, the route through downtown, would generate in excess of $860 million a year in revenue. Opposition to the direct route, favoring the loop around the city, has asserted that its preferred route would require no new construction, thus saving money. Burrell disagreed.

“If they dump all the traffic that they anticipate, the latest figures I’ve got are 40-60 thousand cars a day once they open I-49 north and south, it will [overwhelm] I-220 because that is only a four-lane road. We’re going to have to go back into Cross Lake, build new pilings to build additional lanes.”

Burrell said the economic report indicated the I-220 loop route would generate $357 million fewer dollars for the area.

He also raised the issue of environmental complications surrounding oil and gas resources that are known to reside beneath Cross Lake and concern over potential pollution caused by traffic over the city water supply.

Burrell sees I-49 as a major issue facing the city’s new mayor. “Whoever leads this city next time look at the impact of building this road because they are going to have to build it one way or the other. The numbers clearly show that you will have twice as much economic impact going through than you would going around. The numbers clearly show that you will have twice as much economic impact going through than you would going around.”