re: Sorry Baton Rouge: Lake Charles gets a new river bridge first, DOTD officials say

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It’s going to be nice as hell in a million years when they extend the bridge to golden meadow then extend 4 laned 3235 all the way from its current ending in Larose to highway 90 near Raceland. After that you’ll have a nice quick express trip to Grand Isle instead of having to take 308 for a stretch.

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That will be nice too, but there are 2 big hurdles for that to come into fruition. You need to construct a bridge over the intracoastal and either the Company Canal in Lockport or another bridge over Bayou Lafourche.

If I recall what someone told me from the LA 1 Coalition was that the plan for 3235 is to cross the intracoastal where it terminates and then head north for a few miles and then curve back to LA and cross Bayou Lafourche near Valentine and then follow the old railroad right away to US 90. Either route you still need to construct 2 high level bridges.

One crazy idea to save money was that someone suggested that they construct a second overpass on the 308 side and use the new Larose lift bridge that was constructed about 7 years ago.

If you ask me, that is another problem with the state sometimes the state’s traffic problem disappears. Someone posted about the Audubon bridge in St. Francisville, and that project was part of a much larger project that was to create another major East West route along LA 10, but that never came be. Also, traffic counts were way over estimated.

The same is true for the LA 1 project. I think they should come up with a phased approach for the Northern section. Instead of a 4 lane at first, you may need just a 2 lane bypass with limited access and still plan for a 4 lane. This what they did for the Donaldsonville to Boutte road along the River. Right now, there isn’t enough traffic to support a full 4 lane on that section of future road.

Cleaning up the intersection would go a long way in improving traffic and travel times.

DOTD really shite the bed on the new crossovers on 3235. Getting around is so much a hassle. DOTD essentially eliminated all southbound stoplights and put crossover controls and J turns at certain intersections.

Some people don’t even pay mind to the crossover controls just jump the curve to get to their destination. The problem with 3235 is driveways, you have 65 MPH traffic meeting slow or stopped traffic turning into driveways.