City of Ruston, DOTD head toward memorandum on Buc-ee’s road

The city of Ruston and Louisiana’s Department of Transportation and Development should have a memorandum of understanding ready to sign next week that’s the next step toward construction of a new road at the Buc-ee’s Travel Center site.

DOTD representatives, along with federal highway officials, project engineers, and city officials, met Tuesday to finalize plans for the configuration of the new frontage road and access points required by Buc-ee’s as part of the travel center’s coming to Ruston.

“It went really, really, really well,” Mayor Ronny Walker said. “Now we will get the documents we need to move forward.”

The resulting MOU will outline what the city’s required to do to make the transportation part of the travel center incentive package a reality.

Buc’ees plans to build on acreage located on the north side of I-20 adjacent to Tarbutton Road.

As part of the incentive package to get the travel center to come to Ruston, the city agreed to construct a new two-way traffic frontage road on the westbound side of the interstate for customers to access the store.

The frontage road will be done in two phases. The first phase will be from Buc-ee’s to the frontage road, and the second phase from the Tarbutton exit to Grambling. Phase I must be done for Bucee’s to open.

The city already has $5 million from the state and $6 million from the federal government toward the cost of the project.

On Monday, the Board of Aldermen authorized the city to issue up to $15 million in revenue bonds for the infrastructure at the travel center site.

Waker said Ruston will borrow only enough money to get the infrastructure project done, which could be less than the $15 million.

The bonds will be paid back with the city’s portion of the state sales tax collected in the tax increment district, or TID, where the Buc-ee’s property is located.

Walker said he still anticipates construction on the travel center to start this year, with its opening in 2025.