Uh, by the objective measure of my own two eyes? You can trot out all the fancy numbers you want, I’m not blind. The resource extraction that goes on in Louisiana does not necessarily trickle down to its residents nor even stays in the state.

Drive through LA and those places you mentioned and you'll see it.

Also, use PPP.

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/louisiana

Subscores:

* Crime 50th * Economy 50th * Education 46th

and on and on. In fact, I can't find a single top line number when they AREN'T in the bottom 10.

To what I think is your larger point, that project is a small part of the efforts at water control around New Orleans. But, so far they have generally been viewed as beneficial and the various governmental entities keep paying for them -- why should we expect anything different in the future ? Roads get repaved all over the country, bridges rebuilt, and the levees rebuilt. There's always an "infrastructure crisis" of the decade, the chatter is how we as a society judge the expense and confirm it's necessary.