re: How many of you baws went to the public meeting last night about the new bridge?

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Is she wrong? If the majority of the traffic is trying to get to I12, she has a point.

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No, she's not but I think you misunderstood her or didn't read her actual quote.

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Eits said lots of traffic on the current bridge near Port Allen, especially 18-wheelers, is trying to get to I-12 on the way east and those drivers want to avoid New Orleans.

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The majority of semis are indeed going to 12, anyone can see this any afternoon as the majority of semis stick to the three inner lanes at the 10-12 split going east.

While a lot of smaller traffic goes the same direction, the real problem on 12 comes in with Essen and 10 being major routes for traffic onto 12 east, both being very near to each other and the traffic is compensated for with only short, temporary 4th lanes.

To add to this, a lot of traffic comes on at Airline as well and it's clover-leaf aspect means the outside lane becomes a massive clusterfrick as a high amount of traffic attempting to enter the interstate have to jockey with a high amount of traffic attempting to exit the interstate, all in a very small amount of space. Then just beyond that is the other entrance from Airline to the interstate (the northbound Airline traffic).

Where a bridge would be most effective is Option 1 (this is a bit farther south than the previous one, which was between Brusly and Addis).



The idea is that it should be the crossing point for a southern loop, where passthrough traffic could go to avoid coming into Baton Rouge altogether.



The yellow line is about where I would like to see the loop go with the current option. The purple line is where the previous northernmost choice was. Part of the key to this is having Hwy 30 four (ideally six) laned from the bridge up to LSU's campus in order to provide a large, new avenue for that population to pull a lot of that traffic from the center of the city as well. A loop like either of those would be the primary route any east-west traffic bound for New Orleans would take as well as open up more area for population growth BEFORE it gets there, create a new avenue for plant traffic (which takes it out of Baton Rouge) and adds only a few extra miles to any trip for those passing through the area entirely.