Proposed I-12 Widening

[richyb83]

Before any talk of a Loop is done; widening I-12 to at least Walker and widening I-10 should be a major priority.

Officials present plans for I-12

The widening of Interstate 12 from O�Neal Lane in Baton Rouge into Livingston Parish will include a pair of new Amite River bridges that are about six-feet taller than the current spans, state highway officials said at a public hearing Tuesday night.

How far east the extra lanes run will depend on the best proposal presented by a contractor in the design-build project, said William D. Ankner, secretary of the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development.

How far the contractor promises to go with the added lanes will be second in importance only to quality of the proposed work in selecting the contractor, Ankner told the audience. �We�re going to go as far east as we can,� and get the �biggest bang for the buck,� he said.

Ankner said he doubts, however, that the $100 million widening project will reach all the way to Walker.

http://www.2theadvoc...s/19754359.html

[all2neat]

I think getting it to walker is very important.. Past Juban traffic isn't too bad yet, so inconvenience us all now, while traffic isn't too bad before it really gets developed out there... Just common sense to me.

[BRPJ]

I think getting it to walker is very important.. Past Juban traffic isn't too bad yet, so inconvenience us all now, while traffic isn't too bad before it really gets developed out there... Just common sense to me.

[cajun]

Not before any talk of a loop is done....

We need the loop and the in-town freeways widened yesterday.

[nquint1]

In that article they mention tearing down the existing Amite River bridges and rebuilding them six feet higher. Does this bother anyone else? Why do they need to this? Has this portion of I12 ever flooded? Isn't the whold Comite diversion project designed to relieve pressure on this part of the Amite anyway? Unless these bridges need to be replaced I see no point in tearing them down and building them six feet higher. Why not take the money for the bridges and use it to extend the lanes further East? Is there something I'm not getting?

[richyb83]

Welcome to the BR Forums nquint1 If I'm not mistaken they could be bulding one "continuous" bridge(like new Hwy.190 bridge) eliminating the middle-ground altogether between the 2 bridges; it has been blamed for clogging up the river in western Denham Springs in past floods. The Comite diversion is expected to only be minimal help down that way.

No doubt they need to widen I-12 to at least Walker.

[cajun]

I just thought that I-12 is six lanes, I-10 will be six lanes, but I-10 between College and LA415 will be six lanes.

That means 12 lanes feeding into 6 lanes right around College Drive.

I just wanted to point that out.

[BRPJ]

I just thought that I-12 is six lanes, I-10 will be six lanes, but I-10 between College and LA415 will be six lanes.

That means 12 lanes feeding into 6 lanes right around College Drive.

I just wanted to point that out.

They need to do what atlanta did with 75 and 85 where they merge. I know we don't have too much space, but they should do what they can to allow all that traffic up one vein of highway. 8 lanes at least

[buckett5425]

If I remember correctly, the news reported a story a year ago, that, they are going to preform a study to see if they can widen I10 from the split to the new bridge. But, come on, there is no room, and its all elevated, I dont see study showing its possible to widen it. Hopefully, the loop will take enough traffic from the center of town so widening wont be as needed by relieving the congestion.

[BRPJ]

I don't know, IMO I think widening I-10 between the split and the bridge should be top priority over the loop.

[cajun]

Honestly, they need both so much and I-10 in town has been neglected for 25 years....I'd say that the Baton Rouge area interstates should get some MAJOR funding from the state...especially considering all the money that has historically been going into populist projects of the day. I don't see why our projects can't take priority over New Orleans (or Shreveport) for a decade. Then the next decade they can move on to Lafayette.

They can widen it...but they are going to have to widen the twin spans and adjust the exit/entrance ramps onto the elevated section. Perkins road on ramp will probably have to go away since it's sandwiched between a rail road and the freeway. Washington Street is probably going to have to close too, since they will need that space for a dedicated lane.

They also have to widen College drive overpass and the Acadian overpass.

It's not going to be cheap, and it's sad that no one is thinking of this until the last few years.

I can't wait to see how they will widen the bridge, if they choose to do so.

[xav13r]

Honestly, they need both so much and I-10 in town has been neglected for 25 years....I'd say that the Baton Rouge area interstates should get some MAJOR funding from the state...especially considering all the money that has historically been going into populist projects of the day. I don't see why our projects can't take priority over New Orleans (or Shreveport) for a decade. Then the next decade they can move on to Lafayette.

They can widen it...but they are going to have to widen the twin spans and adjust the exit/entrance ramps onto the elevated section. Perkins road on ramp will probably have to go away since it's sandwiched between a rail road and the freeway. Washington Street is probably going to have to close too, since they will need that space for a dedicated lane.

They also have to widen College drive overpass and the Acadian overpass.

It's not going to be cheap, and it's sad that no one is thinking of this until the last few years.

I can't wait to see how they will widen the bridge, if they choose to do so.

The stretch from 12 to Acadian can probably be widened similarly to New Orleans' stretch of 10 from 610 to Clearview, but it will be interesting to see how they can widen the elevated section and still keep the required legal amount of lanes open unless they do a quick fix and close the entire highway. Quick fix is damn near impossible without a loop.

In my opinion 12 should be widened from BR to Slidell and 10 all the way to N.O. but it will probably be too much work to deal with the wetlands and Pontchartrain.

[Zackman]

Back around 2001-2002, there was a project that detailed the widening of I-10 from I-12 to the new bridge. This was done as the next logic step after the last widening of I-12 was completed. A complete scale model was constructed of the proposed plan and the public could view it in one of the unused spaces in the Southdowns Shopping Center.

The project addressed the access to College from I-10, included service roads, corrected the access to Washington Street, and actually corrected the on and off ramps accessing I-10 from the new bridge.

Numerous town meetings where held in the surrounding neighborhoods to get residents input, but they were all derailed by some of the residences who opposed the widening of I-10 between College and Dalrymple. The rally cry was "Save Perkins Road Overpass Area". They even got the Perkins Overpass Area designated as a Historical Area. The then Mayor-President, Bobby Simpson, gave in to the residents who were opposed to the project and the I-10 widening project died.

The fact was that one building in the Perkins Road Overpass Area would have to be moved. If memory serves, it was Georges.

[richyb83]

^ Yeah I do remember that. Those looked plans had the look of a major upgrade! Those services roads had me stoked! They also had plans of a "new overpass" between CitiPlace and Corporate Square connecting Bunker Hill Drive ?? Of course they would need to knock that sound wall out + the new Cambria Suites would probably like that too.

Those service roads along I-10 should have connected College Drive with Essen, Bluebonnet and Siegen. Maybe this can still happen??

That's really a tricky situation with the Perkins Road overpass area(deserves it's own thread BTW). Was George's the only place to be demolished by the widening?? And new townhouses just went up right up against I-10 near the lakes, that didn't help anything.

I wish I could have seen those plans in person.

[nquint1]

Perkins road on ramp will probably have to go away since it's sandwiched between a rail road and the freeway.

It would be nice if they did this, but reconstructed part of the road so that it went behind Parrain's and in between the twin spans. Then they could pave the area underneath the interstate(and add lights) and make it parking for the Perkins Road Area.

[BRPJ]

Back around 2001-2002, there was a project that detailed the widening of I-10 from I-12 to the new bridge. This was done as the next logic step after the last widening of I-12 was completed. A complete scale model was constructed of the proposed plan and the public could view it in one of the unused spaces in the Southdowns Shopping Center.

The project addressed the access to College from I-10, included service roads, corrected the access to Washington Street, and actually corrected the on and off ramps accessing I-10 from the new bridge.

Numerous town meetings where held in the surrounding neighborhoods to get residents input, but they were all derailed by some of the residences who opposed the widening of I-10 between College and Dalrymple. The rally cry was "Save Perkins Road Overpass Area". They even got the Perkins Overpass Area designated as a Historical Area. The then Mayor-President, Bobby Simpson, gave in to the residents who were opposed to the project and the I-10 widening project died.

The fact was that one building in the Perkins Road Overpass Area would have to be moved. If memory serves, it was Georges.

I remember that. Imagine, it could have been done by now

[richyb83]

It's scary how many fatalities have happened on this stretch of I-12. Very sad.

I-12 reopened after triple-fatality crash

The crash happened after two vans locked bumpers on the interstate. Next, they slammed into an 18-wheeler that was hauling pipes, which sent them sailing out of control. Then, a Waste Management truck rammed those vehicles from behind.

Three people died in the crash.

http://www.wafb.com/Global/story.asp?S=8753069

[nquint1]

Remember about a year ago (at least I think it was about a year ago) when there were a lot of accidents on I12 within a month. Of course it brought up discussion about widdening the road. Some legislator or metro council member (can't remember who he was) said the construction would only make accidents worse! I'll never forget that. So I guess that means we shouldn't ever widen any roads... That makes a lot of sense.

[richyb83]

Something we have all been saying; good to see they want to make sure the I-12 widening is guaranteed all the way to Walker; anything less like South Range Ave. or Juban Road is just not acceptable. 1/2 the $$ for this project is going to bridge replacement/ cut the islands to widen the river basin.

Legislators say widen more of I-12

Baton Rouge area lawmakers have launched a campaign to extend the widening of Interstate 12 from O

[BRPJ]

Something we have all been saying; good to see they want to make sure the I-12 widening is guaranteed all the way to Walker; anything less like South Range Ave. or Juban Road is just not acceptable. 1/2 the $$ for this project is going to bridge replacement/ cut the islands to widen the river basin.

Legislators say widen more of I-12

Baton Rouge area lawmakers have launched a campaign to extend the widening of Interstate 12 from O

[cajun]

While they are at it, they can widen I-10 btw the 10/12 split and LA 415....and do something about the angle of the 10/110 split.

[all2neat]

They are cajun,

Infact construction on I10 from 10/12 to Siegen (though bluebonnet to siegen is complete) is supposed to start in December..

[richyb83]

>>Expand I-12 eastbound to three lanes from O

[all2neat]

The only thing I can think to do now is to have an organized protest.

This proposal is really stupid...It doesn't fix the problem at all.. They are barely getting it to range.. in one direction!

At this time, I think it would be a better idea to spend all the money on the east bound side, get it to walker, then get the money for the other side..

[BRPJ]

How stupid! Gosh. When are they going to get over this "Half-ass" mentality around these parts.