Baton Rouge Transportation

[greg225]

I notice how these articles only attack Baton Rouge and EBR, but never any other parishes in our area. They never say EBR have more road work done and plan and under construction than any parish and our area. Plus they never list the roads that state own in EBR been planned for years to be repaired. The article was right about our transit system do sucks wish EBR would have let it go bankrupt years ago and we could have rebuild it with private company. Something that could be done sell half of the transit system to a private company. 

Edited September 9, 2015 by greg225

[Antrell Williams]

I notice how these articles only attack Baton Rouge and EBR, but never any other parishes in our area. They never say EBR have more road work done and plan and under construction than any parish and our area. Plus they never list the roads that state own in EBR been planned for years to be repaired. The article was right about our transit system do sucks wish EBR would have let it go bankrupt years ago and we could have rebuild it with private company. Something that could be done sell half of the transit system to a private company. 

Much of the traffic is due to how Baton Rouge is designed and most of the traffic jams occur in EBR. There will be more work done because it's the largest parish by a huge margin, but it doesn't mean that it's enough.

[greg225]

Public meeting set next month for proposed toll road around Baton Rouge            

A public meeting will be held next month on a proposed toll-bypass around Baton Rouge. WBRZ-TV reports. The proposal comes on the heels of studies showing Baton Rouge has some of the worst traffic in the country for medium-sized cities.

The Louisiana Transportation Authority has set the hearing for Oct. 20, after having a closed-door meeting Tuesday with the company proposing the plan.

AECOM, an international engineering firm, first proposed the plan in January. The bypass would go for 23 miles starting at Interstate 10 and Pecue Lane. It would follow Airline Highway north and west around the city, crossing the Mississippi River on the U.S. 190 bridge before rejoining I-10 four miles west of the La. 415 interchange in West Baton Rouge Parish.

Free public roads would still run parallel to the proposed toll road. The bypass would cost upwards of $1 billion to construct and would be ready in 2022. AECOM proposed a public-private partnership with the state, one where a private company pays for the construction and recoups the investment with the tolls.

If approved, the state would undergo the normal bidding process. AECOM would have to enter bids like any other company. The plan would use the existing right-of-way, so no private property would need to be acquired.

WBRZ-TV has a map of the proposed toll road route.          https://www.businessreport.com/article/lsu-among-just-24-fbs-schools-whose-athletic-programs-turned-profit-2014          

 

 

Edited September 23, 2015 by greg225

[greg225]

No more ‘zig zag’ driving from Tiger Bend to Airline highway when Antioch Extension opens Tuesday

Extension connects Airline to Tiger Bend    

The long-awaited Antioch Road Extension in the southeast part of the parish opens to drivers Tuesday morning for the first time, providing a direct north-south connection from Jefferson Highway to Airline Highway.

 

The project, which cost $5.2 million, is expected to take pressure off the nearby, heavily congested Highland Road, between Jefferson and Airline highways.

It’s also expected to catalyze development in the area.

“I think the whole area benefits. There are long-standing traffic problems in that area,” said developer Russell Mosely, who is overseeing The Long Farm residential and commercial development adjacent to the new extension.

Mosely said he’s excited about the future commercial development that will be spurred by the new road, which strengthens the residential component of his project.

He noted that the popular Thibodaux-based grocer Rouses, which acquired land on The Long Farm development, is preparing to start construction. But the business’s prerequisite for locating in the area was that the extension be built.

“It’s a positive for our project,” Mosely said, “due to the fact that over 100 acres of development will happen now because that road is there.”

The road project also realigned the existing portion of Antioch Road from La Louisiana Court to Jefferson Highway, so the connection is straighter.

“This is just a straight shot from Tiger Bend Road to Airline Highway, instead of having to zig and zag to get to that point,” said Mike Olson, project engineer for the city-parish.

The road project is funded from appropriations from the city-parish general fund and traffic impact fees.

It’s one of the largest road projects that’s not funded from the Green Light Plan, a parishwide road improvements plan primarily funded by its own half-cent sales tax.

Metro Councilman Joel Boe, whose district encompasses the new road extension, said he was pleased to see the investment paying off in the “fastest-growing part of our parish.”

“The morning and afternoon drive on Highland and Barringer (Foreman Road) can be pretty bad,” Boe said. “This should provide immediate relief. I can’t wait to try it out.”     http://theadvocate.com/news/13566822-123/no-more-zig-zag-driving                                      

[all2neat]

Sweet!

[cajun]

Are there any plans on getting an Amtrak route setup to connect Baton Rouge to Memphis or Houston?  

Amtrak baffles me.   Lafayette and McComb get a connection but Baton Rouge and Nashville don't.   I think their lack of competitive dynamic means that they don't really try to open up new markets for themselves since rail is so capital intensive.

Public meeting set next month for proposed toll road around Baton Rouge            

A public meeting will be held next month on a proposed toll-bypass around Baton Rouge. WBRZ-TV reports. The proposal comes on the heels of studies showing Baton Rouge has some of the worst traffic in the country for medium-sized cities.

The Louisiana Transportation Authority has set the hearing for Oct. 20, after having a closed-door meeting Tuesday with the company proposing the plan.

AECOM, an international engineering firm, first proposed the plan in January. The bypass would go for 23 miles starting at Interstate 10 and Pecue Lane. It would follow Airline Highway north and west around the city, crossing the Mississippi River on the U.S. 190 bridge before rejoining I-10 four miles west of the La. 415 interchange in West Baton Rouge Parish.

Free public roads would still run parallel to the proposed toll road. The bypass would cost upwards of $1 billion to construct and would be ready in 2022. AECOM proposed a public-private partnership with the state, one where a private company pays for the construction and recoups the investment with the tolls.

If approved, the state would undergo the normal bidding process. AECOM would have to enter bids like any other company. The plan would use the existing right-of-way, so no private property would need to be acquired.

WBRZ-TV has a map of the proposed toll road route.          https://www.businessreport.com/article/lsu-among-just-24-fbs-schools-whose-athletic-programs-turned-profit-2014          

 

 

This is the best route I've seen.  It keeps the traffic closer to the city center, funnels it into areas that could use the commercial/retail visibility, and opens up depressed areas to investment by distribution and industrial companies while simultaneously providing an alternate route around I-10/110 interchange and creating an efficient north/south route that locals can use (something that's desperately needed).   To make things better, they have enough right of way in post places to handle this and won't need to build expensive bridges or knock down any homes.   The toll operators would easily get their investment back since this wide and under-utilized strip of right-of-way sits in a developed area with a customer base already built in.

The Huey Long bridge is sitting there and is under-utilized.  It's paid for and we should utilize it before we talk about building another bridge or widening the I-10 bridge.

I can just see politicians from North Baton Rouge complaining about it being a toll road though....as if people that wanted to avoid tolls wouldn't have feeder roads to use.   I know they don't like to work with others, but their energy would be better spent pushing for a layover district (with new signage requirements, public transit, road widening, and zoning" along the Airline route ahead of this new road as well as the cross streets that will connect to it.   Prescott, Greenwell, Choctaw, Tom, etc.....they'll all be faced with an increased need for new zoning language, transit stops, and retail zoning as well since they'll be intersecting a highway that will carry more than twice the traffic that Airline does today.

I can also envision this route making currently unmarketable plots of land like the former Beaumont Hotel site into ideal candidates for distribution centers, light industrial, fuel stations, hospitality business, retail, and other job producing uses that will contribute to the local economy.   Same for the former EKL site and the economically challenged area at the foot of the bridge on the WBR side.  They may never be a new "mall of Louisiana" in those areas, but with better access and visibility, they can be marketed as affordable sites for businesses that provide much-needed jobs to the local economy.   

Edited October 1, 2015 by cajun

[greg225]

 

I can also envision this route making currently unmarketable plots of land like the former Beaumont Hotel site into ideal candidates for distribution centers, light industrial, fuel stations, hospitality business, retail, and other job producing uses that will contribute to the local economy.   Same for the former EKL site and the economically challenged area at the foot of the bridge on the WBR side.  They may never be a new "mall of Louisiana" in those areas, but with better access and visibility, they can be marketed as affordable sites for businesses that provide much-needed jobs to the local economy.   

LSU students’ development design proposals for former Earl K. Long site get positive public reaction 

Armed with ideas taken from a March meeting on what to do with the site of the former Earl K. Long hospital on Airline Highway, LSU students drew up two plans over the summer and presented those conceptual renderings to local politicians and residents Thursday night.

The plans call for a mixed-use development, including restaurants, retail and grocery stores, as well as a community center, child care center and medical facility to surround a park in the middle of the tract. Renderings of the plans show a park with a playground, outdoor fitness area and ample green space with several trees providing shade.

In one plan, parking spaces will surround the interior space on three sides and those parking spaces will front businesses that make up the outside of the development. See the rendering. In the other plan, businesses will flank the interior space on two sides with the main parking areas sitting on the opposite ends of the tract. See the rendering. One of the plans also would incorporate a residential component. 

“I think they did a good job of trying to make a good balance and balance the site conditions with the wants of the community,” Diane Jones Allen, an adjunct landscape architecture professor at LSU, says of her master’s landscape architecture students who participated in the project.

State Sen. Sharon Weston Broome, D-Baton Rouge, one of the local leaders spearheading the project, agreed and called the plans a step in the right direction.

“I thought that the plans, the conceptual plans, really captured the ideas that the citizens passed along at the first meeting,” Broome says. The students, she adds, stayed away from things the residents did not want to see, such as strip malls or discount stores.

Surveys collected from those who attended Thursday’s meeting will now be reviewed, which could lead to some alteration in the plans presented, while a steering committee will begin sharing the concepts with developers, Broome says. Developers are also being sought by the committee to lay out their vision for the 14.25-acre property.

“Our goal is to really collaborate with the citizenry. We have no pre-conceived plans for the property, except we want it to add value to the community,” Broome says of her and the other politicians working to make the plans a reality.

Broome says she has had preliminary discussions with interested businesses, but has nothing concrete yet. The property is owned by the East Baton Rouge Housing Authority, and there is no timeline for completion right now.           https://www.businessreport.com/article/lsu-students-development-design-proposals-former-earl-k-long-site-get-positive-public-reaction      

Edited October 4, 2015 by greg225

[greg225]

Decades later, traffic light synchronization remains work in progress for Baton Rouge                             As motorists sit at lights and fume, Baton Rouge continues to rack up rankings on “worst traffic” lists and daily traffic jams and gridlock become the norm. The constant complaint of residents: synchronize lights to get traffic flowing more smoothly.   

But after decades of efforts and millions of dollars spent, only about half of the city’s 500 or so traffic lights are able to communicate with one another and the engineers that operate them.

While noting that some progress has been made, traffic engineers and other officials concede it’s been an expensive and vexing problem to try to solve as changes in technology sometimes outstrip the city-parish’s ability to keep up.

Meanwhile, engineers warn that not all of Baton Rouge’s traffic problems can be solved with synchronized traffic lights. They say the bigger problem is simply that too many cars pour onto busy roads every day.

“It’s pretty incredible the difference that it makes having (the traffic lights) communicating, but it doesn’t solve the capacity problem,” said traffic engineer Sarah Edel.

She also noted that it’s costly to do projects to help move traffic, such as improving intersections and putting up new traffic lights with technology that links them through fiber-optic signals to each other and to engineers that can control their timing.

It cost $10 million in Green Light tax money to rebuild 30 intersections and synchronize just the downtown grid in 2008, according to former Green Light Program Manager Brad Ponder.

City-parish officials had said back in the 1990s that all of the city’s traffic lights would be synchronized by 2010. More promises were made and hopes for relief grew in 2002 with the opening of a new traffic management and emergency operations center on Harding Boulevard.

There, traffic engineers would be using cameras to monitor traffic flow along the interstates and at busy intersections in the parish. But the complete network of synchronized lights envisioned has yet to come together because of costs and other factors.

A team of traffic engineers — including Edel — works at the Advanced Traffic Management Center on Harding Boulevard, where they watch the city’s daily traffic patterns and adjust the sensors in traffic lights to better accommodate traffic flow as problems arise.

They constantly monitor which lights need to be fixed, which signals are not properly communicating and where traffic sits too long at a red light and too short at a green. But, as Edel said, their jobs seem never-ending. There is always another traffic light to fix.

Synchronicity

The older traffic lights in Baton Rouge cannot be synchronized. Lights need new technology in them to communicate with one another, and they need fiber-optic signals that connect to the Traffic Management Center so engineers can control them remotely.

Although about half of the 500 traffic lights the city maintains have the technology to synchronize with one another and communicate with engineers, Edel said, fewer than half of those work ideally. Some have the correct technology, she said, but still are not communicating for various other reasons. Edel said they have had particular trouble with the lights on Perkins Road, Acadian Throughway, Burbank Drive and Lee Drive.

And when one batch of traffic lights isn’t in sync, it can throw off others as well.

“The more you can bring the old tech to new, the better the system works as a whole,” Ponder said. He compared it to the human body, saying that a heart that pumps well does not make a difference if all of the arteries are clogged.

In a perfect world, all of the lights with newer technology would always communicate with each other and be in sync. The roads where lights have the technology to communicate include Siegen Lane, Essen Lane, Bluebonnet Boulevard, Government Street, Jefferson Highway, most of Airline Highway, Acadian Throughway, O’Neal Lane, Millerville Road, Harrells Ferry Road and all of downtown, according to Edel.

College Drive, Perkins Road, Nicholson Drive and Highland Road have all been upgraded to have the synchronization technology, but the lights do not always correctly communicate and will need future fixes, she said. Nicholson and Highland, for example, were two of the first roads that were synchronized and their technology may now be outdated, according to Edel.

The next phase of improvements will target lights on Choctaw Drive and Foster Drive, and it’s pegged at costing about $5 million, Edel said. The money should mostly come from federal dollars and construction may start next year, but it could also be slowed down, she said.

The final phase of synchronization would likely address the lights on Plank Road. Edel said it’s too early to know for sure how much it would cost or estimate a timeline.

Halfway done

The city started studying traffic light synchronization in 1987.

Former Baton Rouge Mayor Tom Ed McHugh called for better synchronization in 1996, and work started to link traffic lights to real-time flow on Airline Highway, Sherwood Forest Boulevard, College Drive, Nicholson Drive and Highland Road.

The city-parish hoped back then to have its then-400 traffic signals all synchronized by 2010. In 2004, the city estimated that 75 percent of the city’s traffic lights would be synchronized by 2006. But two years later, traffic engineers reported that only about 250, or half, of the city-parish’s traffic lights had been synchronized.

That number has remained relatively stagnant since then.

Despite plans to finish the work over the next several years, Edel sees no finish line in the future. She said she anticipates engineers will then have to go back to the first lights that got new technology, and replace what technology has by then become outdated.

“I don’t ever really see technology stopping,” she said. “As technology changes, we’ll do our best to stay on top of it and stay on the cutting edge.”

Edel and her team at the traffic management center have already tried new tactics to become more proactive about fixing traffic problems.

The engineers spend much of their days outside of the office, driving around the city and checking out possible malfunctioning traffic lights that residents have reported.

When they are in the office during rush hour, the engineers keep an eye on TV monitors that show traffic ebbing and flowing in densely-traveled areas, like Interstate 10 at Essen Lane and Airline Highway at Coursey Boulevard.

The engineers can quickly react to traffic pileups that cause more people than usual to pass through certain lights. For example, they can reprogram signals to stay green for longer if they notice that more people than usual are exiting on a certain interstate exit.

Google help?

Synchronizing traffic lights are one aspect of solving Baton Rouge traffic problems so frustrating that it has elected officials and candidates running for office at all levels searching for solutions.

U.S. Rep. Garret Graves said he’s trying to develop a pilot program with Google that would help traffic lights better anticipate what kind of volume is headed their way.

Graves has a Baton Rouge driving experience that’s familiar to many.

Along with fighting gridlock and traffic jams, Graves is used to idling at traffic lights that should seemingly be green but end up staying red, at least for a few minutes longer than he would like.

He recalls leaving work downtown at 2 a.m. on many extra-long nights, driving on Interstate 110, exiting at Government Street and then waiting and waiting — with no cars coming in the distance — for a red light to change.

The traffic lights themselves are of special interest to Graves. He said he’s been in discussions with Google, trying to convince them to commit to a pilot program in Baton Rouge that might synchronize traffic lights with Google Maps.

Graves’ goal would be for Google Maps to alert traffic lights about what volume is headed their way and to signal the traffic lights for how long to cycle. In those wee morning hours when Graves would sit at a red light on his way home, the Google Maps technology might be able to signal to the traffic light that it should change.

“You can start communicating with the traffic signals, with the traffic management; you can tell the traffic lights how long you have until you’re coming and how long until you’ll be there,” Graves said.

He said the U.S. House of Representatives should have a comprehensive transportation bill introduced in the next few weeks, and he is working to add language to the bill that could set the framework for the pilot program.

Though light synchronization has hit its snags along the way, engineers say that even perfectly synchronized lights would not fix Baton Rouge’s traffic problems. They might barely scratch the surface.

Graves agrees, saying the city needs to look at other mid-term and long-term solutions for the problems, like building new bridges and infrastructure. Many candidates running for state Legislature have also pledged to improve traffic conditions if elected.

“We have an extraordinary distance to go,” Graves said. http://theadvocate.com/news/13703753-64/decades-later-traffic-light-synchronization

Edited October 18, 2015 by greg225

[all2neat]

How about at 2am flashing the lights. I don't see why this can't be done. Flash yellow for the man road.

[greg225]

How about at 2am flashing the lights. I don't see why this can't be done. Flash yellow for the man road.

Something gotta be done I don't know about 2am in Baton Rouge because we have some crazy drivers here.

Edited October 19, 2015 by greg225

[Mr. Burnham]

Only one person showed up to the most recent CATS public meeting. 

[greg225]

Only one person showed up to the most recent CATS public meeting. 

nobody is going show up to something that already been decided.

[greg225]

Louisiana constitutional amendments on transportation funds a step towards solving infrastructure problems, advocates say  

The two transportation-related ballot measures Louisiana’s voters will decide Saturday won’t fix all the state’s road repair projects. As Governing reports, they won’t even come close. But transportation advocates in the state it’s a move in the right direction.

“Every step that we can take is one step better,” says state Sen. Robert Adley, a Republican from Benton who sponsored one of the measures. “You’re not going to go out there and solve an $11 billion problem in one bill. It’s going to take time.”

Lawmakers began focusing on shoring up transportation funding without raising taxes this spring. They outlined a plan to pay for traffic police without relying on transportation money. And they referred two proposals to voters in the form of constitutional amendments, of which there are a total of four on Saturday’s ballot.

The first proposed amendment would cap the state’s rainy day fund, which is bankrolled by taxes on oil and natural gas producers, at $500 million and direct any extra money from those fees toward improving the state’s infrastructure. The second would give the state treasurer to option of investing state money in an infrastructure bank to help cities and parishes finance new projects.

Adley, the chief proponent of changes to the rainy day fund, says $500 million in reserves should be enough to help the state survive sudden drops in oil tax revenue. Louisiana brings in about $8 billion in general funds every year. Anything beyond $500 million, Adley says, should be returned to taxpayers or spent on improving the state’s infrastructure. He notes that Texas voters passed a similar proposal last year.

“This first year, [the transportation fund] should receive $17 million right off the top. That’s helpful. It’s not the solution, but it is helpful,” Adley says.

Legislative analysts, though, have predicted that the new fund would not bring in much money in its first few years. In the three years after the initial $17 million payment, the transportation fund would probably only bring in between $4.4 million and $9.3 million a year. Adley hopes those numbers will improve when the price of oil increases again, which means oil companies would produce more oil in Louisiana and pay more taxes on it.

The second transportation question on the ballot would build an infrastructure bank in Louisiana, after several unsuccessful attempts to do so. The legislature created the infrastructure bank in its last session, but this ballot measure would authorize the state treasurer to use state money to fund it. With an infrastructure bank, localities could apply for loans from the state to build infrastructure projects.

Read the full story by Governing. And check out a guide to all four proposed constitutional amendments on Saturday’s ballot by the Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana.       https://www.businessreport.com/article/louisiana-constitutional-amendments-transportation-funds-step-towards-solving-infrastructure-problems-advocates-say

[greg225]

Stumberg Lane extension connecting Pecue Lane to Jefferson Highway set to open to motorists Thursday               

The new Stumberg Lane extension is set to open to the public on Thursday, giving Pecue Lane drivers a direct connection to Jefferson Highway.

 

The $9.5 million project has been in the works for two-and-a-half years. The money came from the tax that Baton Rouge residents pay for roads as part of the city-parish’s Green Light Plan.

The city-parish has been working on Stumberg Lane for several years, and the Stumberg Lane extension is the second half of a project that was larger in scope. The goal has been to create a better north/south connection between Perkins Road and Coursey Boulevard by linking Pecue Lane, Airline Highway and Jefferson Highway.

The first part of the project was completed in 2012 and tied Pecue Lane to Airline Highway. The second part takes the connection a step further, by joining Stumberg Lane to Jefferson Highway.

The work also included building bridge over Claycut Bayou and widening Jefferson Highway.

Woman’s Hospital off Stumberg Lane also received a roundabout as part of the road improvements to give drivers easier access to the hospital.

“This essential connection provides a more comprehensive access route to Woman’s Hospital, and an alternative route to allow for city-parish residents to experience convenient travel, no matter their destination,” said Mayor-President Kip Holden in a news release.

Holden planned to hold a ribbon-cutting at 10 a.m. on Thursday where the Stumberg Lane Extension and the hospital roundabout intersect.    http://theadvocate.com/news/13818062-70/stumberg-lane-extension-connecting-pecue

[Antrell Williams]

People need to realize that there is only 1 left turn lane from Stumberg to Jefferson Hwy now!

[greg225]

Backlash builds as Baton Rouge inches toward transportation options beyond cars        

The alternative transportation culture is growing in Baton Rouge. But with it, there’s mounting tension, as 225 details in a feature from the November issue.

In a relatively short period of time, car-centric Baton Rouge has seen real signs of progress toward establishing an alternative transportation culture. Bike lanes or paths have been built in pockets throughout East Baton Rouge Parish, and more are slated for construction, including an extension of the Mississippi River levee bike path south from Farr Park to Ben Hur Road and the Ward’s Creek Trail connecting Bluebonnet Boulevard to Siegen Lane.

The parish’s FuturEBR plan calls for Government Street to be reduced from four lanes to three in certain sections to calm traffic and allow cycling lanes, and a design firm is currently finalizing details.

A statewide coalition of biking organizations has formed and is holding a summit in Baton Rouge early this month. And a recent Environmental Protection Agency grant is helping the city study a possible public bike share program.

But while all of these changes invite more biking in the region, the cycling infrastructure—and public education about how bikers and motorists should interact—hasn’t caught up. Controversy in one Mid City neighborhood over who gets to use bike lanes, along with several high-profile accidents, suggest the Capital City has a long way to go before it accepts its urban identity.

Some say it’s a normal juncture for cities in the midst of this kind of change.

“I’m part of the Baton Rouge learning curve,” says Gordon Mese, owner of the Garden District Nursery in Mid City.

On the evening of Aug. 5, Mese was cycling in the bike lane on Capital Heights Avenue with his girlfriend, Julie Morgan, when a motorist driving north on Blanchard Street ran a stop sign and struck him. Ironically, Mese and Morgan were returning from a memorial bike ride for a cyclist who was hit and killed by a vehicle on Goodwood Boulevard a few days earlier. Mese and Morgan were both wearing reflective vests. Mese suffered three fractures in his hip and was still limping nearly two months after the accident. The driver was cited for failure to yield and issued a ticket.

“He did a lot more than that,” Mese says. “He was definitely distracted.”

Mese, a landscape architect who pushed better urban planning as his main campaign plank when he ran for mayor in 2012, says Baton Rouge has made strides but is behind many of its peers.

“The rest of the world is way far ahead of us on this,” he says. “Most of the country is ahead of us.”

Read the full feature. Send your comments to [email protected].   https://www.businessreport.com/article/backlash-builds-baton-rouge-inches-toward-transportation-options-beyond-cars

[greg225]

Another $48M taken from roadwork, steered to plug deficit      

Despite criticism, Gov. Bobby Jindal has taken $48 million that would have been used on roads and bridges and used it instead to plug this year’s budget deficit.

The Associated Press reports the maneuver, backed by lawmakers on the joint House and Senate budget committee, got little public discussion and came after months of election campaign promises that such sidetracking of roadwork money should end.

The Jindal administration says diverting the transportation money helped shield public colleges and other services from deep cuts. Nearly all the money, about $46 million, came from the Transportation Trust Fund that contains state gasoline and fuel tax income. The remaining sliver of cash came from vehicle registration as well as license fees and taxes.

Combined with the earlier use of transportation money to pay for state police this year, $93 million initially earmarked for road repairs, highway upgrades and other infrastructure needs will be spent on other government operations.

Critics of the latest diversion of transportation funds say the budget maneuver received too little debate and damages the state’s ability to chip away at a $12 billion backlog of road and bridge needs.

“The administration saw that was an easy grab for them,” says Ken Perret, a retired assistant state transportation secretary and president of the Louisiana Good Roads and Transportation Association, an advocacy group.

Lawmakers have said they disagree with steering gas tax dollars away from road and bridge work. But Jindal has won support for diverting $286 million of such money to state police operations since 2011. That’s not counting the additional money just approved by the joint budget committee to pay for general government operations.   https://www.businessreport.com/article/another-48m-taken-roadwork-steered-plug-deficit

[greg225]

See why we can't get no help from the state to fix Baton Rouge traffic problems. SMH Jindal been bankrupting the transportation fund by transferring the money for other use.

Edited November 26, 2015 by greg225

[greg225]

Highway money could head to Baton Rouge after amendments are added to federal highway bill   

Baton Rouge’s snarled traffic situation may get some relief, should federal lawmakers pass a new federal highway funding bill that now has provisions to funnel some of the money to Louisiana.

Provisions to address the much-maligned Washington Street exit in Baton Rouge, the widening of Interstates 10 and 12, and improvements on La. 1 and La. 30 were added by Republican U.S. Rep. Garret Graves, who addressed the need for traffic improvements many times during public appearances in Baton Rouge back in early September—the same week the state Department of Transportation and Development held public meetings on the potential widening of I-10 and I-12.

The provisions were added after Graves met with leaders from both chambers working on the highway funding bill, according to a news release from Graves’ office.

Under the current framework of the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation, or FAST, Act, Louisiana would receive up to $100 million annually and have a shot at between $800 million to $1 billion in federal grant funding annually.

“Drivers across South Louisiana are tired of seeing and hearing about how bad traffic is,” Graves says in a prepared statement. “We need to see action.”

Among the amendments that could affect Louisiana: transportation funding of $4.5 billion over five years for competitive grants under the National Significant Freight and Highway Projects program to fund national or regional projects costing more than $100 million; prioritizing projects that increase capacity in portions of highways to improve mobility under National Significant Freight and Highway Projects program; and for officials to consider projects that improve energy security.

“As I’ve said before, our roadways are decades behind where they need to be,” Graves says. “Traffic delays are strangling our economy, taking time away from our families and are a daily reminder that taxpayers aren’t getting a return on investment. Louisiana’s share of additional funding and the new competitive grant program present tremendous opportunity to noticeable improvement.”

Those amendments, according to a news release from Graves’ office, are directly related to improvements needed on Interstate 49, La. 1 and the Washington Street exit on I-10.

“Few projects rival the importance of clearing up the chokepoint along I-10,” Graves says. “The Washington Street exit is one of the only places in the country where an interstate drops to one lane, and it occurs at a high volume point along a national corridor heavily used by cross-country freight, regional and local traffic. Louisiana will ultimately compete for funding under the program, but I am confident that I-10 is well positioned.”

The current highway funding programs expire Friday. The full House is expected to consider the FAST Act tomorrow.   https://www.businessreport.com/article/highway-money-head-baton-rouge-amendments-added-federal-highway-bill

[all2neat]

Hopefully the funding gets passed. 

[greg225]

News roundup: Ribbon-cutting event set for Thursday for Essen Lane/I-10 project             Traffic relief: Mayor Kip Holden and other city leaders will cut the ribbon Thursday on the Essen Lane at Interstate 10 Widening Project, which is part of the city-parish’s Green Light Plan. The widening project is aimed at easing congestion in one of the most heavily trafficked areas of the city, Essen Lane between Perkins Road and Jefferson Highway, with 55,000 daily drivers. The ceremony will be at 10 a.m. at the Burden Museum and Gardens at 4560 Essen Lane.     https://www.businessreport.com/article/news-roundup-ribbon-cutting-event-set-thursday-essen-lanei-10-project-lockport-shipyard-settles-false-claims-suit-feds-louisiana-pegged-fifth-wo

[greg225]

Urban gondolas in Baton Rouge? BRAF is explores traffic solution   

Baton Rouge Area Foundation President and CEO John Davies said Wednesday that the solution to the city’s traffic problems is not adding more roads, but exploring new transportation methods ranging from bike share programs to urban gondolas.

 

Davies, addressing the Rotary Club of Baton Rouge, said BRAF is looking ahead to new transportation and mobility solutions. He also highlighted BRAF’s current and past work in filling the city-parish’s void of mental health treatment options and building up downtown.

“We can’t really fix the traffic problems...by pouring more concrete, it just exacerbates the problem,” Davies said. “You just decamp your community further and further and further out into the suburbs.”

He called the urban gondolas — aerial lifts that are similar to cable cars or ski lifts — the most “far-out” idea that BRAF has considered. He said the foundation has already gone through one round of studies on them, and some are pushing for a second round of research with gondola providers.

Davies deemed the urban gondolas efficient, noting that they require no right-of-ways, just landing spots. He said they could cross over and above the Interstates as drivers sit in traffic jams below.

Portland, Oregon has an aerial tram, while La Paz, Bolivia is known for its urban gondola system.

Davies said other ideas for what BRAF calls “new mobility” include car share programs, bike shares and an early-in-the-works streetcar line to connect the Nicholson Corridor to downtown.

Davies also touched on some of the foundation’s recent work. He echoed the statements of city-parish public officials, public safety leaders and health experts by saying Baton Rouge desperately needs a place to house and care for mentally ill people who get in trouble with the law.

“Prisons have become de facto asylums,” he said.

The foundation has identified the Baton Rouge Detox Center on South Foster Drive as an ideal place to house a mental health center. Many city-parish leaders have complained that Baton Rouge taxpayers spend millions of dollars paying for the mentally ill to sit in prison because they do not have anywhere else to go.

Davies said projections from economist Ray Perryman estimate that the city-parish could save $3 million in the first year of having a mental health recovery facility, and the city could save close to $55 million over 10 years.

“We’re just talking money, but this isn’t money, folks,” Davies said. “This is about morality and how we treat our fellow man.”

BRAF has not yet identified a funding source to build the mental health facility. City-parish leaders had hoped last year that voters would give the nod to increased taxes that would pay for a $16.6 million mental health facility as part of a $335 million public safety tax plan.

The Metro Council did not allow the tax proposals to go to an election, with many members questioning if tax money was the only way to pay for the improvements.  http://theadvocate.com/news/14226800-123/urban-gondolas-in-baton-rouge-braf-is-exploring-them-as-traffic-solution

Edited December 9, 2015 by greg225

[greg225]

I could see this working in the Baton Rouge area, but other steps must be taking for this to work. Baton Rouge need to add sidewalks on main roads, bike lanes,  light rail, and BRT system/ new buses. If all those thing are done including the train from Baton Rouge to New Orleans this could really change the area for the better.            

Edited December 10, 2015 by greg225

[greg225]

Portland   

[Antrell Williams]

But we can't build a competent bus system..