Driver April Blake described traffic this way, “Horrible, horrible. It’s backed up all the time."

Highway 21 has a reputation, and it’s not a good one according to driver MaryAnn Gex, “Peak hours it’s horrible, especially people coming home from work. It’s awful.”
 
In the works for years, a plan is now about to be put into action. The parish will begin first with a stretch that will be paid for using bond issue money said St. Tammany Parish spokesperson Suzanne Parsons, “We’re gonna go from two lanes to four lanes all the way from I-12, actually it’s a little north of there now all the way to Bootlegger road and it’s going to have a median in the middle.”
 
“It would help, very much so yes, I wish they would do it quickly," said Gex.

The parish’s part will get finished fairly quickly but the next phase will take much longer. From Bootlegger Road all the way up to 11th Avenue in Covington, the Regional Planning Commission is working on widening two lanes to four and building a second span for the Tchefuncte Bridge, with two lanes going in each direction.

So far, the Regional Planning Commission has come up with about four-point-two million dollars for this project however to take it to completion they need closer to eighteen million dollars.

Finding that money will take a lot work according to Parsons, “We’re going to be working very closely with them, with the LA Department of Transportation and Development, with the Federal Highway Administration and with the city of Covington because that particular section from the river north up to 11th avenue is of course in the city itself.”
 
The Regional Planning Commission hopes to finish it’s environmental studies within the first quarter of next year. Then workers can begin drawing up plans and start going after funding.

The parish says once it starts work on it’s section of the road at the beginning of next year, it will take about a year and a half to complete.

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