re: Avoid I-10 in Port Allen and Baton Rouge until 2028

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It sucks they're not making it 3 lanes eastbound from the La 1 exit to up the bridge where La 1 merges on to the bridge. It's an exit only lane and they're keeping the old two lanes up the bridge.

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That's not where the bottleneck is - the issue is at the hard right turn at I-110 on the other side of the river.

If they add extra lanes there, there will not be a dedicated lane on the bridge from LA1 to I-10 East unless they widen the bridge deck. Doing that would add a a couple of zeros to this project's budget. That may happen in time, but not for this project.

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It needed to be 2 lanes there 50 years ago

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The game changer is that both of those lanes are continuous. People on I-10 won't have to move left or risk getting off on Washington street - that right hand lane will keep going beyond College drive.

And - it's going to be impossible to exit on Washington street from I-110 south. So no idiots cutting across two lanes to exit on Washington street in front of I-10 traffic. The new Terrace Ave exit makes that unnecessary too. I'm also liking what appears to be a very wide emergency lane on the right hand shoulder around that curve.

It's a solid design. It doesn't eliminate the need for a new bridge south of I-10 near Brusly, but it will be a tremendous help to the area.

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You fix the "no dedicated lane onto the bridge for La 1" by building a nice corridor from the 415 exit over the intracoastal to La 1. Then you close the La 1 bottleneck merge on to the bridge and make people use 415 to get on and off the interstate.

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That might work. I know there's a separate project to add an elevated extension of LA415 that will cross the Intercoastal canal and over the railroad tracks at the port of Baton Rouge.

Hopefully it's more than a narrow two lane road. That would be a huge waste of cash otherwise.

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I like this idea. It would require beefing up the LA415 connector and the Lobdell exit, but it might actually work. That would give that traffic several miles to merge onto I-10 rather than just a few hundred yards.

And you can have the full 3 lanes feeding onto the bridge eastbound.

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Amazing I thought of this in 30 seconds when it takes these people 5 years and 8 studies to figure out an idea. Guess you can figure things out quick when there’s no slush fund involved.

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They have room to do what needs to be done and keep Washington as an exit.
I was for closing Washington too, but DOTD says room is there to keep it open.

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Unless they put a physical barrier that will prevent traffic from S/B I-110 exiting there....CLOSE WASHINGTON STREET

S/B traffic trying to exit at Washington is still a problem. That new Terrace Street exit is hardly used because idiots still want to cross 3 lanes of traffic to exit at Washington. That’s $9 million that was a wasted

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There is a separate study going on to choose another bridge location. It’s being done now. The plan discussed in the OP is not the only improvement to be done.

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I have no doubt studies are underway. Louisiana infrastructural experts are a real "studious" bunch. But in all seriousness, I hope so. A loop south of BR to i10 on the WBR side would help a lot but if they're doing that they might as well swing one up somehow to airline or a new expressway of sorts to connect the northern end of the city and northbound traffic, which may not be necessary at the moment, but the city will grow north of north BR in the next few decades I would imagine.

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I may over looked it but does it mention widening the bridge? None of this will a thing if the bridge isn’t widened

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Agreed. But can you imagine the traffic on the bridge during construction if they try to add a lane the the eastbound lanes?