St. Tammany Parish President Kevin Davis painted a very rosy picture of progress and growth for the eastern side of the parish Friday at the Fourth Friday Breakfast of the East St. Tammany Chamber of Commerce.

A packed banquet hall at the Pinewoods Country Club in Slidell filled with Chamber members; state legislators and Slidell officials listened to Davis as he gave a PowerPoint presentation of all the big projects slated for east St. Tammany Parish.

Chief among the planned projects are road improvements that total $22 million. Davis said that design plans are in progress for a new three-lane road that will connect the Slidell Municipal Airport to U.S. Highway 11, easing traffic congestion and opening a new evacuation route for residents in north Slidell. The project is expected to cost $11 million.

A bit farther east, a roundabout traffic circle is being planned for the intersection of Robert Boulevard and Brownswitch Road.

The $2 million project will create a traffic circle at the intersection, allowing traffic to flow around the traffic signal. The intersection has been a headache for motorists, because both roads are only two lanes, and long lines develop at the traffic light during rush hour.

“With the roundabout, the traffic never really stops, and will ease peak travel times,” Davis said. “It’s worked in other communities.”

He added that a small piece of right-of-way needs to be purchased before construction starts sometime this summer. The parish is proposing that construction crews work at night on the circle to avoid traffic snarls during the day.

There are also improvements for the intersection of Military Road and Interstate 59 in the works. Davis said the improvements would ease traffic near Pearl River and improve transportation for the Rooms To Go distribution center that is being built in the area.

The cost for the upgrade is slated at $3 million.

South Slidell will also get its share of infrastructure, according to Davis. Davis wants to improve the “gateway to the parish” by widening U.S. Highway 11 from the Five Mile Bridge up to the First Baptist Church in Slidell to four lanes. He said that getting right-of-ways is the only hurdle to the project.

He said that most fishing camps would stay along the highway. The Louisiana Recovery Agency and the Department of Transportation Development are helping the project, which is estimated at $40 million.

The widened highway will also be the site of one of Davis’ pet projects. The Sky Train, a futuristic transportation system that uses a magnetic levitation rail to transport people all over the parish once it is completed.

The Sky Train is a partnership project between the parish and Michoud.

It will use small 4-passenger vehicles that will whisk commuters at speeds up to 150 mph above the roadway.

Davis said there are two advantages to the system. First it will cut down on automobile traffic and parking spaces in the parish, and secondly, the system will take commuters directly to their destination without stops. After the Sky Train is built on Highway 11, it will be continued all the way to Covington.

“It is the future,” Davis said. He added that building the Sky Train is more economical than building ground level mass transit.

Building a bus line costs about $20 million per mile, while the Sky Train would cost between $5 and $8 million per mile.

Drainage projects are expected to take a big leap forward with Slidell and the parish combining their drainage infrastructure on the east side of the parish.

The parish will pay 25 percent of the costs with Slidell paying 75 percent of the proposed $100 million project. Davis said the project would start in 2009.

Part of the drainage system will include new retention ponds the U.S. Corps of Engineers will build at I-12, near Northshore Hospital, and Bayou Liberty.

“The retention ponds will lower flood levels during heavy rains, and the Corps will use the dirt to upgrade the levees,” Davis said.

He also said that despite the national housing market, there is no slump in house sales in the parish.

“Banks tell me business is good, interest rates are low, and people are buying,” Davis said.

Ironically, the good economy here has its drawbacks, Davis said. He said the parish still has “huge problems,” with keeping physicians and mental health care. He said state and federal help is hard to come by in these areas, because St. Tammany’s high-income level.

“Though we have a high income level, we still suffer from the same problems as other communities,” Davis said. He said that working with the federal government has resulted in some relief to keep doctors in the parish, and to increase mental health care.