re: Today's Advocate headline, "I-10 widening garners little enthusiasm"

The Washington Street exit has nothing to do with it if you don't widen it to two dedicated lanes coming off the interstate all the way through to the split. Eliminating Washington street exit tomorrow would do nothing but push the merge down 400 feet.

The fix is installing an extra lane from the current merge off the bridge all the way to the split. If you go the to the meeting tonight at the River Center, you will hear that they plan on doing it in the space that they have. The overpass whiny people will have their businesses disrupted while they build it, but the total footprint of the interstate will not change. This will be DOTD's best attempt to make it happen and it appears the political capital is there this time.

It will not fix the entire Baton Rouge problem but will make an improvement. You will also hear that DOTD is also in favor of another bridge over the river. The problem is that number is around $850 million if I remember correctly. There is no money like that in budget in the near future.