Baton Rouge I-10 traffic relief party becomes a political fight

The Times-Picayune ^ | August 5, 2016 | JR Ball

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

You know something is a big deal when politicians start fighting for credit — and camera time. Given the "thank me" glomming going on in Baton Rouge these days, clearly news that the federal government will pony up enough cash to fix the disaster that is Interstate 10 westbound off the Mississippi River Bridge is one of those hallelujah moments.

There was Gov. John Bel Edwards on Thursday (Aug. 4), at old McKinley High School with U.S. Rep. Cedric Richmond by his side, telling the world Louisiana will be getting between $20 million and $25 million in FASTLANE grant money to move the dreaded Washington Street exit. Which — as anyone who's ever cursed and crawled their way into Baton Rouge by crossing the river knows — is the reason why I-10 does the unthinkable: bottlenecking down to one, traffic-jamming lane.

For the record: State officials, per Rebekah Allen of The Baton Rouge Advocate, said the exit ramp will be relocated to the other side of I-10, closer to downtown, which everyone hopes will put an end to at least one of our long Baton Rouge traffic nightmares. Construction could — and note the word "could" — begin by 2018.

This is a major deal, people. Big enough to merit a Mardi Gras-style, "Oh when the saints go marching in" second line celebration.

It is our BRexit.

Yet what ought to be a road-rage-reducing hootenanny is being trumped by the political donnybrook over who deserves the utmost praise for delivering this manna from the feds.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Politicans falling all over each other to take credit for a pending highway improvement.

[Charles Martel]

That exit is only part of the problem. On the east side of the bridge (just past the exit that they plan to relocate to the far left side of the bridge's traffic lanes), the lanes that turn south towards New Orleans descend into a bottleneck where they join other traffic coming from the north. Even if they take away the problems caused by that first east-bank exit, traffic will still back up across the bridge because there just isn't enough roadway volume in that spot to handle the I-10 traffic flow.

These idiots clamoring for the credit will we pointing fingers at others when this plan doesn't help.

[PAR35]

I’ve always found it a lot worse eastbound than westbound.

Adequate signage would help.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Yes, the writer messed up by saying the exit in question was screwing up the westbound traffic. It screws up the eastbound traffic.

[PAR35]

Or else they are fixing the wrong problem.

The best solution would be to route I 10 to a new bridge south of LSU and use the existing bridge to tie into a 110 - 12 link.

The alternative would be to close off the ramps between 10 and 110.

[Impy]

How is Louisiana enjoying it’s new BLM-beholden Rat Governor?