re: Open letter to Garrett Graves re: BR Loop

imminent domain > wetland mitigation

do it. has to be done. the rest is excuses. At minimum fix that fricking I-10 E exit on the bridge. good lord.

quote:

---

No way man, according to this board elected officials go to DC to vote the way their constituency tells them to and thats it, bringing home pork to the home state is what democrats do.

---

You are a liar

You know it's bad when your driving on one of the busiest interstates in the country and you see a flashing yellow sign that says "Be Prepared to Stop"

Like WTF, on the interstate? That sign belongs at railroad crossings in rural areas and in front of schools, not on an interstate

Why not just expand the bridge and widen I-10 from the basin to BR to 6 lanes, and from the bridge to denham and to gonzales to 8 lanes?

quote:

---

Why not just expand the bridge and widen I-10 from the basin to BR to 6 lanes, and from the bridge to denham and to gonzales to 8 lanes?

---

Excellent question!

Building more access for traffic shouldn't just be about "right now" it should be about 20, 30, even 50 years down the road. While your proposal would address the current issue, it only does so in a temporary manner.

To my way of thinking, the biggest issue with Baton Rouge traffic is the excess traffic flowing through it via the interstate. People travelling within Baton Rouge often want to use the interstate to get from A to B because it's big, has a higher speed limit, it has no red lights and it runs pretty much through the center of the area so it can often be far more convenient than using surface streets. Tens, possibly hundreds, of thousands of vehicles per day come through Baton Rouge along 10/12 and never stop. All adding extra lanes would do would be to increase the amount of those pass-through vehicles that could pass through at any given time.

So, at best, we might get a few years (or even a decade) of some slight relief before finding ourselves back in the same boat.

Creating a new loop along the lines I've given would do multiple things:

1. It would remove much of the pass-through traffic. Not having the traffic come through at all would negate a lot of the need for more expansion (other than for something like the Washington Street Exit bullshittery).

2. While not often thought of as such, the areas of Addis, Brusly and Plaquemine are all impacted by I10 traffic as well. The plan I outlined would not only give them another avenue of access to I-10 not choke-pointed by the Intracoastal but it would also give them a back-door into the Baton Rouge area via a new bridge (that would be fairly close to being equidistant between the Sunshine and I10 bridges).

3. Growth follows the interstates. By channeling some of this growth outward to more rural areas by giving them better interstate access you spread the population out more. This means less population clustering in areas that haven't yet been designed for such population (looking at you Prairieville). What I've proposed would open up not just vast swaths of land south of Baton Rouge for future development but it would also open up fricktons of land across the river as well as the lands south of 12.

4. This loop would run through unincorporated, largely vacant areas. Acquiring this land would be far easier and far less costly than tearing down profitable businesses and homes built on far more valuable properties.

5. By building a new loop, the impact on existing traffic is minimal to non-existent.

quote:

---

Growth follows the interstates. By channeling some of this growth outward to more rural areas by giving them better interstate access you spread the population out more

---

A very good reason why the West Bank and the north side are both good places to focus on highway infrastructure. Namely a bypass.

quote:

---

To my way of thinking, the biggest issue with Baton Rouge traffic is the excess traffic flowing through it via the interstate. People travelling within Baton Rouge often want to use the interstate to get from A to B because it's big, has a higher speed limit, it has no red lights and it runs pretty much through the center of the area so it can often be far more convenient than using surface streets. Tens, possibly hundreds, of thousands of vehicles per day come through Baton Rouge along 10/12 and never stop. All adding extra lanes would do would be to increase the amount of those pass-through vehicles that could pass through at any given time.

---

I agree completely. Widening I-10 is critical and needed, but it won’t solve everything. Alternative routes must be developed.

Your plan shows that you have taken the time to look at the situation and present thoughtful, well reasoned and researched ides. It shows that you have taken into consideration traffic flow patterns and the need for forethought in that it should be six as opposed to 4 lanes for future development. It is a workable, perhaps, ideal plan.


With that said, let me assure you that it will never work. You are not a "consultant" and there is not enough consideration of the environmental impact studies as well as economic impact as well as feasibility studies that need to go first in an ad nauseum manner

As such , you need to change your ideas, so that incorporates, if not outright replaces the building of roads with flashing signs and digital signs as well as payoffs to certain politicians and their friends of both political parties

quote:

---

Bard, I drew something very similar to this one night recently while drunk talking about this. But i crossed a little further north at plaquemine or even at morrison ville but the MS crossing would be longer the

---

Haha. Yeah I threw something together on Paint for an old thread to show how I would do it. I will post it when I get home.