PALMETTO, La (KLFY) – Guidry Road in Palmetto is an old gravel road with houses and family farms.
It will soon be rebuilt and paved in Phase 4-A of the St. Landry Parish “Smooth Ride Home” program.
“We’re going to place a two to two and-a-half inch layer of asphalt,” said St. Landry Parish President Bill Fontenot. “It’s going to look like a brand new and will be a brand-new paved road and should be the standard of the state standards that exist today.”
Paving the half mile long road will cost about $120,000.
Connecting roads like Snows, Carmon and Campground have already been paved.
Garland Station Road in Garland is another road that will be paved in this round of projects. About 20 miles of roads will be paved at a cost of around $3.5 million.
The parish will spend over $400,000 to pave two miles of Garland Station Road, Rene Road and Glaze Road.
Most of the money is coming from the “Smooth Ride Home” program
The 15-year program was approved by unincorporated St. Landry Parish voters in 2013. It set up a two-penny sales tax in the rural parts of the parish to pay for roads, bridges, and drainage projects.
Since 2014, 320 miles of roads in St. Landry Parish have been paved.
Another 20 miles will be paved this year.
And 150 to 200 miles should be paved over the next ten years.
Fontenot said the referendum never promised all roads would be paved.
“This was the largest referendum that we could pass that could be afforded and we are fortunate that it’s going to pave 60 percent, maybe 70 percent of the roads over that 15-year period,” he said.
Every time we do a story about “Smooth Ride Home”, we get comments and complaints on why certain roads haven’t been paved yet.
Fontenot said roads are prioritized based on the number of vehicles that use the road, connectivity, and proximity to churches, schools and industrial areas.
“There’s inevitably always not enough resources to do them all at one time, that’s why this is a 15-year program, not a five-year program,” Fontenot said.
Paving work on Guidry Road and Garland Station Road should start this summer and be finished around Christmas.
Fontenot said all roads in the parish could be paved if the tax is renewed in 2028.
