Residents reject redesign
Intersection fix met with resentment
ADDIS — The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development will seek bids later this month for a construction project to redesign the intersection of La. 1 and Sugar Plantation Parkway, an intersection that both the state and area residents agree is dangerous.
The state plans to install J-turns, which would add two dedicated lanes along the median for drivers to use to turn onto La. 1, DOTD spokesman Brendan Rush said.
The idea, he said, is to improve safety and traffic flow at the intersection by giving more length of road to drivers planning to head north or south.
But many residents of nearby Sugar Mill Plantation are opposed to the J-turn plan. Some of them have promised to fight DOTD until the state relents and installs a traffic signal.
So far, they have circulated a petition, created the “Red Light for Sugarmill” Facebook page and scheduled a community meeting for 6 p.m. Wednesday at 3835 Poplar Grove Drive, in Addis.
Sugar Mill Plantation resident Josh Hinton, 28, is one of the lead voices in the movement to have a traffic light installed.
Hinton said he was involved in a wreck in 2009 when he turned left into the subdivision from the La. 1 northbound lanes.
Late last year, Elise Jean Boudreaux, 68, and her mother, Thelma Bizette, 87, died from injuries they received in a wreck at the intersection.
In April, Ann Hope Browne, 54, the sister of LSU football coach Les Miles, died in a traffic accident at the intersection when she attempted to merge onto La. 1.
“I can’t tell you how many times people have been in wrecks I’ve seen in the five years I’ve lived in Sugar Mill,” Hinton said. “There are too many decisions to make, and people are kind of forced into making bad decisions with the volume of traffic we have.”
Hinton said it’s difficult for drivers who are turning right out of the development onto La. 1 southbound to see oncoming traffic when there is a vehicle in the right turn lane, turning into the subdivision.
“It’s like you have a blind spot and you can’t see what’s coming at you,” he said.
Turning left out of the subdivision poses another challenge, he said, because drivers not only have the same blind spot to contend with, but also must cross two lanes of southbound traffic and then enter an often congested median before merging into the northbound lanes.
“It’s a debacle,” Hinton said.
The J-turn plan will only further complicate a driver’s decision making, he said, because drivers turning right onto La. 1 will have only a few hundred feet to merge into the J-turn lane, turn slightly to the left, come to a stop and then merge onto La. 1 northbound.
“We’re going to fight this thing. With the J-turns, we’re looking at December before something gets done when we could put in a red light in two weeks,” he said. “DOTD doesn’t know the final plan for the subdivision. You’re going to spend all that money on J-turns and then put in a traffic light later when enough people move in. Let’s spend the money now. You’ve got to be smart with taxpayer money.”
DOTD officials estimate that it would cost $500,000 to install a traffic signal while the J-turn project is expected to cost between $500,000 and $1 million.
Calvin Blount said his company, Star Development LLC, has built about 500 homes in the subdivision since 2005, including houses, apartment units and townhomes.
“And we’re still building,” he said. “We have 192 acres that are undeveloped. There’s another company that has 208 acres to develop.”
Blount said he’s been lobbying DOTD for a traffic light for several years, even paying $8,500 for a traffic study which, he said, the state dismissed.
“We had meetings with the state. They told us there wasn’t enough traffic coming out of Sugar Mill, and a light would just slow things down on the highway.”
Mayor Carroll Bourgeois said the state hasn’t shown his town enough respect. He’s particularly upset about a January community meeting where DOTD talked to people in small groups instead of making one large presentation.
“Nobody had the benefit of hearing other people’s questions,” the mayor said. “These J-turns are a joke. They’re appropriately named. I call them joke turns. DOTD is making guinea pigs of the town of Addis, and I resent that. We’re going to have to do something with our legislators, but who knows just how bold they’re going to be.”
DOTD spokeswoman Jodi Conachen said the agency is aware that residents prefer a traffic signal, but, she said, research estimates indicate that J-turns will reduce crashes by 20 percent — while installing a traffic light would only decrease wrecks at a rate of 5 percent.
About 40,000 cars drive through that stretch of La. 1 daily compared to the 1,000 people that go in and out of Sugar Mill each day, she said.
“A traffic signal is a solution to balance traffic flow. What we have at this intersection is not a traffic issue; it’s a safety issue,” she said.
Bert Moore, a traffic operations engineer with DOTD, added that J-turns will cut out some of the riskier decisions people currently have to make.
“You won’t have to look to the left and have to worry about what someone’s doing in the median, then getting to the median and worrying about people coming off of La. 1 or the service road,” he said.
J-turn construction is expected to begin 30 days after a contract is awarded. The project should be finished by the end of the year, Moore said.