When it comes to the sprawling operations of the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development, few are probably more knowledgeable than the agency’s longtime No. 2, Eric Kalivoda.
Now, Kalivoda has the title of secretary of DOTD, as the former chief of the highway department, Shawn Wilson, resigned to run for governor in the fall elections.
Gov. John Bel Edwards cannot seek a third consecutive term. That means a considerable turnover in state government, with a new boss to be sworn in next January. And that usually means turnover in top appointees.
Kalivoda had planned to retire then anyway, having worked as deputy secretary since 2010. He started as a DOTD intern fresh out of LSU and came on full-time in 1994.
That experience has taught him, as Kalivoda noted in an interview, that DOTD deals not with purely election-cycle timing. Big projects take years to accomplish, and sometimes even decades.
Per his marching orders from Edwards, DOTD will seek to keep projects now on its plate going forward. “I only have 10 months in this job,” Kalivoda said. “There is not enough time to make significant changes even if I was so inclined.”
Still, there is momentum that will be noticed: The long-awaited Loyola interchange on Interstate 10, expected to be completed this fall, should help reduce congestion for travelers going to Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport.
Many other major projects around the state will still require work to remain on a path to progress. In the Baton Rouge and Lake Charles areas, new bridges are needed across major rivers and, as critics of DOTD often fail to recognize, the department is at the same time responsible for maintenance of its thousands of miles of state and federal roadways.
Another long-sought project is the Comite diversion canal, intended to address flooding in suburban Baton Rouge. Officials from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reported recently that the project faces delays that will push back completion to mid-2025.
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