Louisiana

[roadman65]

Terrobonne has them.

[roadman65]

A friend of mine who lives in Houma was telling me that Louisiana has a law that prohibits left lane driving unless you are indeed passing another vehicle.  Also, I heard him to tell me that you MUST let a merging vehicle onto the roadway by moving over.  Failure to do this is violation of a state statute.

Now the former I have seen on the books in many states, but the latter I have not.  I do find people to not move over quite frequently whenever I am the merging vehicle with many of them having the next lane free of other vehicles.  If that last one is true, too bad it was not everywhere and most of all enforceable.

[NE2]

If you move left to let a merging vehicle over, and that vehicle speeds up to freeway speeds quickly enough, you're driving in the left lane without passing. Legal failure.

[brownpelican]

Does anyone know what is up with the Canal Street Ferry in New Orleans?  I see vehicles are no longer carried with the boats running designed for passengers only.

The RTA and NOLA City Council approved a plan that would bump the Algiers ferry fares to $2 per person/car each way and $1 for disabled persons. No one knows when they'll be implemented. Right now, the ferry is open to passengers.

[Urban Prairie Schooner]

A friend of mine who lives in Houma was telling me that Louisiana has a law that prohibits left lane driving unless you are indeed passing another vehicle.  Also, I heard him to tell me that you MUST let a merging vehicle onto the roadway by moving over.  Failure to do this is violation of a state statute.

Now the former I have seen on the books in many states, but the latter I have not.  I do find people to not move over quite frequently whenever I am the merging vehicle with many of them having the next lane free of other vehicles.  If that last one is true, too bad it was not everywhere and most of all enforceable.

Signage on the interstates mandate the first practice pretty clearly. As to the second practice, I wasn't aware it was legally mandated, but it seems like good driving practice, especially since merging is a skill few drivers in this area seem to have mastered. I do this while driving and I have seen other drivers do the same.

[UptownRoadGeek]

I've always felt that people in the city did a pretty good job at merging, but once you go outside of the levee.... 

I don't what cause DOTD to start actually hanging VMS signs over the highway instead of posting on pole to the side of the road or in the median, but I like this approach better with one exception. On the I-10 EB at Bonnabel the VMS signs are cantilevered over the sound wall and sits directly over the two acceleration lanes versus the 6 or 7 mainlines and is barely noticeable to thru traffic. Likewise in the WB direction the sign hangs over the exit lanes for Bonnabel and Causeway instead of the inside lanes where its target audience is.

All of the BGSs on the riverbound Pontchartrain have been replaced with Clearview from I-10 to the GNO. The control city "Westbank" had been replaced with "Miss River Br". Don't know how I feel about that one.

Is anyone else slightly annoyed that their using Clearview for numbers, all caps, none white on green signs, and every other way that it wasn't approved to be used?

[cjk374]

Is anyone else slightly annoyed that their using Clearview for numbers, all caps, none white on green signs, and every other way that it wasn't approved to be used?

They are now using (what I think looks like) clearview for the numbers on the gore signs now.  It doesn't look as bad as clearview fonts on the BGSs.  Nothing looks really good in clearview, but especially in Louisiana.

[Urban Prairie Schooner]

Is anyone else slightly annoyed that their using Clearview for numbers, all caps, none white on green signs, and every other way that it wasn't approved to be used?

Clearview font is ugly no matter how it is used.

[roadman65]

What are those large ugly pipes along the side of I-10 at the west terminus of I-610 that grace the road on the side of the EB Lanes?  Is that fresh water, or is that part of the area's draining system?   

[codyg1985]

What are those large ugly pipes along the side of I-10 at the west terminus of I-610 that grace the road on the side of the EB Lanes?  Is that fresh water, or is that part of the area's draining system?   

It is part of a pumping system to pump water from underneath overpasses in case of flooding.

[apjung]

What are those large ugly pipes along the side of I-10 at the west terminus of I-610 that grace the road on the side of the EB Lanes?  Is that fresh water, or is that part of the area's draining system?   

It is part of a pumping system to pump water from underneath overpasses in case of flooding.

Yes and the pipes run along the old I-10 EB ROW. Some of the old bridge supports were not demolished and were reused for the pipes.
http://goo.gl/maps/nzVgf

[UptownRoadGeek]

Clearview font is ugly no matter how it is used.

The only place that I actually can actually appreciate it is in Texas, the Houston area to be more exact.  Louisiana's examples are definitely nowhere near the worst that I've seen, but I find that their new sign installations to be sloppy. Mix-matched exit tab styles, clearview route numbers on one sign and FHWA on the next. 3di sheilds for 2di routes, etc.

I do like Louisiana's new lane marking and reflector scheme, however.

[pctech]

What is our (LA.) new lane marking/ reflector scheme?

[UptownRoadGeek]

What is our (LA.) new lane marking/ reflector scheme?

The four reflectors between the white stripes. At first they were attached to the stripe, but sometime between the end of last year and beginning of this year they moved them to the center.

[pctech]

They (DODT) used that scheme here on the BR interstate expansion. It'll be very visible at night for a few months. What is the projected life span of a pavement marker reflector? How much do they cost? Anyone know?
I'm waiting to see my first APL BGS in Louisiana.

[UptownRoadGeek]

They (DODT) used that scheme here on the BR interstate expansion. It'll be very visible at night for a few months. What is the projected life span of a pavement marker reflector? How much do they cost? Anyone know?
I'm waiting to see my first APL BGS in Louisiana.

They restriped all of the NO interstates to the first version with the reflectors as an extension of the stripes back in 2011. Didn't last six months. Now they are restriping them to match those in BR.

[cjk374]

I-20 was done in Ruston & Monroe/West Monroe w/the 4 reflectors in the centerstripe and LOTS of white & yellow reflectors just outside the shoulder lines.  Outside of these towns they only put 2 on the centerstripe and none on the outside.

[bugo]

I've always felt that people in the city did a pretty good job at merging, but once you go outside of the levee.... 

I don't what cause DOTD to start actually hanging VMS signs over the highway instead of posting on pole to the side of the road or in the median, but I like this approach better with one exception. On the I-10 EB at Bonnabel the VMS signs are cantilevered over the sound wall and sits directly over the two acceleration lanes versus the 6 or 7 mainlines and is barely noticeable to thru traffic. Likewise in the WB direction the sign hangs over the exit lanes for Bonnabel and Causeway instead of the inside lanes where its target audience is.

All of the BGSs on the riverbound Pontchartrain have been replaced with Clearview from I-10 to the GNO. The control city "Westbank" had been replaced with "Miss River Br". Don't know how I feel about that one.

Is anyone else slightly annoyed that their using Clearview for numbers, all caps, none white on green signs, and every other way that it wasn't approved to be used?

I'm annoyed that clearview exists at all.

[brownpelican]

Denham Springs City Council voted last week to enter a contract with LaDOTD in which the city will pay for engineering and 20 percent of ROW costs while the state pays the rest and for construction of a J-turn on Range Road at Eugene Street.

http://theadvocate.com/home/7685697-125/officials-plan-j-turn-to-ease

[Grzrd]

For reference, we've had past discussions on the concept of deconstructing I-10 along Claiborne....one from a couple months ago in the Louisiana thread, and another from early 2009.

(above quote from NOLA gets grant to study possible teardown of I-10 over Claiborne thread)
This article reports that three alternative scenarios and a sub-alternative for the Claiborne elevated portion of I-10 will be presented in September

This Oct. 21, 2013 article reports that Phase 0 of the study has been completed and that four scenarios have been presented for consideration:

A $2.1 million Livable Claiborne Communities study wound down in October as community members attended two final meetings in a series dating to last December. The study, with $1.5 million from the feds and $600,000 in locally matched funding, represented Phase 0 in a six-phase process that will create federally-supported transportation projects, said William Gilchrist, the city's director of place-based planning ....
the study's planners unveiled scenarios for developing the area along Claiborne Ave. from Napoleon Ave. to Elysian Fields, and between Broad St. on the lake side and Oretha Castle Haley Blvd., Rampart St. and St. Claude Ave. on the Mississippi River side ....
The project's next step, Phase 1, will be a followup study required by the National Environmental Policy Act or NEPA, Gilchrist said ....
In options for the elevated I-10 expressway over Claiborne, the LCC study identified four scenarios, without recommending one over another. This fall, city planners will submit these scenarios, based on transportation modeling done at the Regional Planning Commission, to the U.S. Dept. of Transportation and the Dept. of Housing and Urban Development. Possibilities include keeping or removing the elevated portion and eliminating some or all of the exit ramps to re-link neighborhoods torn apart by the 1960s-era overpass ....

The article also describes the four scenarios.

In addition, Froggie has posted his suggestion in the Fictional Highways thread.

[froggie]

The article references a website, http://livableclaiborne.com, that talks about the study and includes the presentation from the October public meetings.  I was unaware of the proposal to build a C/D road style system in along BUSINESS US 90, but it's in one of the I-10/Claiborne scenarios.

[brownpelican]

An engineering firm has unveiled some proposals that would add roundabouts on La. 447 from La. 16 near Port Vincent to Burgess Avenue in Walker, including the I-12 interchange. The plan would also utilize U-turns and concrete medians.

One option would add 10 roundabouts while a second proposal eliminates three of those roundabouts.

In either case, La. 447 would be widened to four lanes from Buddy Ellis Road to Burgess Avenue and a center lane added from Buddy Ellis to La. 16.

http://theadvocate.com/home/7829468-125/roundabout-proposals-discussed


In addition, The Causeway Commission is paying the Texas A&M Transportation Institute $100,000 to study ways to improve the retaining walls/guard rails and keep cars from going off the bridge.

http://www.nola.com/traffic/index.ssf/2013/12/texas_am_transportation_instit.html#incart_river

[Urban Prairie Schooner]

Looks like LaDOTD has made public the documentation and maps for the state highway turnback program:
http://www.dotd.la.gov/programs/RoadTransfer/

Though I am sure this program is in line with the present administration's policy of streamlining and shrinking state government, I am pretty certain that DOTD has been looking to do something of this sort for much longer than the current administration has been around. Certainly I have been looking for this to happen for quite a while!

So far this program is voluntary with regards to participation by parishes and municipalities. At that rate, any desired progress may take a while. I have a feeling that any substantial progress could only occur in the unlikely event that the Legislature were to pull an "Iowa 2003" and transfer routes en masse by legislation. Since the local governments would never allow it without substantial financial compensation, I doubt such a thing will ever happen unless some sort of "grand agreement" were in place to provide a financial cushion for localities.

[pctech]

I can't imagine cash strapped parish governments wanting to take back state controlled highways. On a different note, I took a day trip to McComb MS.  on Friday. The rebuilt section of I-55 from I-12 to the Ms. state line is very nice, makes you wonder if you are driving in Louisiana. 

[lamsalfl]

http://www.louisianaradionetwork.com/blogs/expand-i-12#.Ussn-rmA2Uk

I-12 widening in Slidell from US 11 to Northshore Blvd. will be let this summer!  DOTD's ultimate goal is to widen ALL of I-12.