Louisiana’s Closest Buc-ee’s Could Open Sooner Than Expected

For a state without one Louisiana sure does love Buc-ee's. You know Buc-ee's right? The over-the-top travel centers that are famous for clean restrooms and fresh smoked brisket? Louisiana travelers swear by Buc-ee's and sometimes swear at Buc-ee's if they've had the misfortune of stopping at the Robertsdale, Alabama location during a peak beach weekend. Yeah, it can get pretty crowded.

Just yesterday we were made aware of movement in the construction of Louisiana's first location of the iconic travel center. The Mayor of Ruston offered an update on some of the roads and infrastructure planning that is being reviewed. Those plans will need to be approved by LA DOTD so that roads can be constructed to handle the estimated 15,000 vehicles that will stream through the Ruston location of Buc-ee's every day.

The outlook for the opening of Louisiana's Buc-ee's in Ruston is for some time in 2025. That means that Louisiana's closest Buc-ee's will be the new I-10 location that is being built on the Mississippi Gulf Coast in Harrison County. We've gotten an update on how that project is progressing too.

The Executive Director of the Harrison County Development Commission spoke with the Sun Herald Newspaper out of Biloxi. In his comments to the paper, he suggested that the I-10 Buc-ee's in Mississippi could be opening ahead of schedule. 

The original timetable had that store opening in early 2025 but because crews have gotten a lot done with not only the building but the construction of a new I-10 overpass there is reason to believe that the I-10 Buc-ee's could be open before Thanksgiving of this year.

We should note that the "Thanksgiving opening" is still speculation. There has been no official change in the official timeline from Buc-ee's but it would stand to reason that if the store is ready to open, they will open it, right?

The Mississippi location of Buc-ee's will be less than a 30-minute drive from Louisiana's eastern border. The store will be much larger than its counterpart in Alabama too. The Harrison County Mississippi location will be about 20,000 square feet larger than any of the other four Alabama locations of the travel center.

Buc-ee's boasts more than 40 massive stores scattered throughout the country. In addition to the new Louisiana and Mississippi locations we've already discussed the company plans to open new stores in Colorado, Missouri, Virginia, and Wisconsin in the next few years as well.