LAFAYETTE, La. (KLFY) – The Lafayette Connector is a major piece of the I-49 South project which will connect Lafayette to New Orleans.

The connector is estimated to cost more than $700 million. The five and-a-half mile project will run along the Evangeline Thruway corridor from I-10 just past the Lafayette Regional Airport.

“We’re way beyond the feasibility study for this project,” said DOTD Public Information Officer Deidra Druilhet. “We know that there is a need for this project.”

The project is currently in the environmental impact stage. The DOTD held a series of community meetings over an 18-month period. Residents could look at 19 design concepts. After gathering public input from those meetings, the DOTD decided that three and-a-half miles of the connector would be elevated.

“We don’t want this project to negatively impact the local area,” Druilhet said. “We want to, of course, build a structure that’s going to meet our needs as a transportation agency but we also want to build a structure that’s going to serve as an asset to the local community.”

Acadiana Planning Commission CEO Monique Boulet said residents living along the thruway corridor want to be able to get downtown safely. She said the thruway — built in the 1960s — split the city.

Boulet said the Lafayette Connector is a chance to get it right. This plan calls for a local road — possibly a boulevard — under the connector with bike paths and pedestrian crossings.

“A roadway is not going to fix all of the problems in that area but if we can build it and bring pride and dignity back into those neighborhoods it certainly can be the seed that starts that process,” Boulet said.

The DOTD said the Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement should be finished by next spring. The design phase will take another three to five years.

Funding is a major road block because money for the project hasn’t been identified yet.