Last year, Hurricane Katrina temporarily shut down most Gulf production and forced the evacuation of the peninsular strip of land that LA-1 traverses, laying bare the nation's dependence on a remote road that connects 16% of all U.S. oil supplies to 50% of the USA's refining capacity. Local leaders are now struggling to raise $349 million in public and private capital to erect a 2-mile modern toll bridge and elevated 5.5-mile road to the port that would rise high above the boggy peninsula, preserving a steady flow of energy supplies and better supporting local traffic. The investment shortfall runs into the hundreds of millions of dollars. Combined with what, until now, was a lack of state and federal political will, the deficit underscores the obstacles to post-Katrina rebuilding efforts here in Lafourche Parish and across the Gulf Coast.