Check Out the Progress on Knight Street in Shreveport

Work to completely overhaul Knight Street started just over a year ago and crews have reached a major hurdle.

Phase one of the project is almost complete. Phase 2 now starts between South Pointe Parkway and Preston. Southbound traffic will be closed in this area for at least 6 weeks.

Crews began work in June of 2024 and this work has focused on the stretch of Knight Street from Shreveport Barksdale Highway to South Pointe Parkway. Traffic has been restricted to just one way on this portion of the road for most of that time. But now both lanes are now back open.

Crews have painted the striping and the final touches are being put on this portion of the project. In the meantime, the construction crew has moved to phase 2 of this reconstruction work. The next stretch will run from South Pointe Parkway to Preston. This is the portion of the roadway that goes in front of most of the residential neighborhoods along Knight Street.

Knight Street has been a headache from lots of folks in Shreveport for quite some time. This project was approved in the 2011 Bond Issue. But not much was done for years.

That 2011 bond election during the Cedric Glover administration included more than $40 million dollars for street projects. $3.5 million was for Knight Street between Shreveport Barksdale Highway and Preston. But the work never started. Knight Street will be overlaid, sidewalks and lighting will be added.

Why Did It Take 13 Years to Get to This Project?

I have been told one of the reasons is that city leaders try to involve local companies first and those companies can only handle so many projects in a year. One contractor even told me it would be better for the city to bring in outside contractors after a bond issue to get all the work up and going. This would still mean jobs, but not all of the money would stay local.

But this project also hit many other hurdles. Moving the utilities also did not get started until the past couple of years. Construction costs have skyrocketed. Initial bids came in way over budget. Mayor Tom Arceneaux had to find money to pay for the higher cost of this project.

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How Much Will Knight Street Cost?

The price tag has now more than doubled from 2011. It's expected to cost more than $7 million dollars by the time the Knight Street project is complete.

The low bid for this work was $6,540,000. That is about $2.4 million under budget, which will allow Shreveport "to pay for the street lights out of the project instead of from some other source." City leaders tell KEEL News there were 2 bidders. The low bid came from Turner and Turner.

At the rate we are going, it looks like we are still about a year away from final completion.

Who Is to Blame for all the Delays?

There plenty of blame to go around.

I am going to start with the Glover administration. Getting these projects going was slow. I do understand it takes time to sell the bonds and get things moving. But someone should have done a better job of tracking the projects. Glover left office in 2014 and not much had been done on Knight Street by that time.

I also blame the Ollie Tyler administration. Though she did give an update on the 2011 bond package, her administration projected a 2016 completion of Knight Street. It didn't happen. It never even started.

The Adrian Perkins administration also has to take some blame for this debacle. They knew all about the Knight Street delays but still did not get things moving. In fact, some of the expropriation of the property did not happen until the 3rd year of the Perkins administration. That's not the fault of Perkins. That's the fault of city officials who just dropped the ball. And no one was following up.

Knight Street Traffic Keeps Growing

The BHP YMCA opened in 2017 and this generated even more traffic on Knight Street. The Harbor is now open on Knight Street. Walmart has also generated a ton of traffic. There's also lots of foot traffic from folks walking from various apartment complexes to Walmart.