DOTD outlines redesign plan
ADDIS — More than 100 people packed the Dow Westside YMCA Wednesday night to learn more about the redesign of a dangerous intersection in Addis where three people have died in car wrecks in the past nine months.
State Department of Transportation and Development officials outlined plans to alter the intersection of La. 1 and Sugar Plantation Parkway by installing “J-turns,” which would add two dedicated lanes along the median for traffic to use in turning onto La. 1.
DOTD spokesman Brendon Rush said that the project would improve safety and traffic flow at the intersection by giving more length of road to drivers looking to head north or south.
“This J-turn movement is not new,” he said. “You can find them on Airline Highway and all over New Orleans. The new part of this is the protected left turn lane.”
Earlier this month, DOTD officials also announced numerous safety improvements for the intersection in addition to the J-turns. These include increased signage, lowering speed limits and creating dedicated turning 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 as she attempted to merge onto La. 1.
Addis residents at the meeting expressed concerns with the intersection, with many preferring a traffic light instead.
Steven Jackson, a retired Baton Rouge Police Department traffic officer, called the J-turn idea “an unmitigated disaster.”
“If they’re so great, why don’t they put them up in front of Walmart or in front of their own building?” he asked.
Ora Provo, who herself was involved in an accident at the intersection, said she also preferred a traffic light.
“I don’t know who is going to monitor the oncoming traffic that we have to cross there,” she said.
Provo’s daughter, Cassandra Bosley, said that after speaking with DOTD officials, she was not for or against either option.
“I feel like anything is better than what we have now,” she said.
Christopher Fox, who lives in the nearby Sugar Mill Apartments, was another who questioned the J-turn design.
“I have to fight traffic just to get to the turn and then fight traffic again,” he said. “You’re just pushing accidents from one intersection over to the others.”
Rush said that DOTD researched the traffic light option, but found that it would decrease accidents only by about 5 percent. A J-turn, he said, was shown to lower accidents by 20 percent.
The project, expected to cost between $500,000 and $1 million and take seven months to complete, is expected to be let out for bid in March, Rush said, with construction beginning in early summer.