I49 in LA

[pctech]

Why were the  new sections of I-49 north of Shreveport built with asphalt emergency shoulders? The norm seems to be concrete on new construction around here. I assume it has less maintenance/wear issues.

[US71]

Why were the  new sections of I-49 north of Shreveport built with asphalt emergency shoulders? The norm seems to be concrete on new construction around here. I assume it has less maintenance/wear issues.

They're not, unless there was a patch job (there is some shoulder & pavement patching near Hosston).  Arkansas, on the other hand DOES have asphalt shoulders on 49.

[Grzrd]

This Feb. 23 video provides a good status report on the progress with I-49 South, and it also provides a link to a map that summarizes the current status of I-49 South:

[Anthony_JK]

The best news there is that it seems that they have come to their senses and will NOT impose tolls on any part of this project. Quoting from the attached article from the KLFY website:

So how will this huge project be funded? LeBas said a study found making it a toll road wouldn't work. She said vehicle sales tax money will go into the state transportation trust fund in 2019. That's expected to generate $400 million a year. Some of that money could be used. There's also hope the federal government will put some money into the project.

Since LADOTD is now fully committed to constructing the segments, the chances of this project getting special funding as a High Priority Corridor is greatly increased....once Congress gets off its collected duffs and passes a long-term transportation spending bill.

[mcdonaat]

Why were the  new sections of I-49 north of Shreveport built with asphalt emergency shoulders? The norm seems to be concrete on new construction around here. I assume it has less maintenance/wear issues.

US 167 between Dodson and Jonesboro, along with Hodge to Quitman, is built the same way. My assumption is that asphalt is cheaper, so instead of concreting the whole road, you  just do travel lanes.

[apjung]

Google Maps now has updated aerials of a completed I-49 on the Arkansas/Louisiana border. I do see that a section between Hosston and LA 168 has asphalt shoulders and a lot of concrete patchwork.
http://goo.gl/maps/p63Rz

[cjk374]

Google Maps now has updated aerials of a completed I-49 on the Arkansas/Louisiana border. I do see that a section between Hosston and LA 168 has asphalt shoulders and a lot of concrete patchwork.
http://goo.gl/maps/p63Rz

I haven't driven on the new northern stretch of I-49 yet, but one of my guesses of the "patchwork" is possibly grinding work.  I actually pushed a profilograph machine on I-530 between US 79 and Old Warren Rd in Pine Bluff.  If the graph hits a certain point, the road needs to be ground smooth.  I wonder if this is grinding work? 

[US71]

Google Maps now has updated aerials of a completed I-49 on the Arkansas/Louisiana border. I do see that a section between Hosston and LA 168 has asphalt shoulders and a lot of concrete patchwork.
http://goo.gl/maps/p63Rz

There is a lot of patchwork ("doweling") on the whole road between Shreveport and the AR-LA State Line.  Grzrd and I noticed that when we did our pre-drive, though the asphalt repave didn't exist at that time.

[pctech]

More high quality DODT supervised work?

[US71]

More high quality DODT supervised work?

Most likely

[Grzrd]

The Baton Rouge support for I-49 South is consistent with LaDOTD partially describing I-49 South as a Baton Rouge Bypass:

The extension of I-49 will provide ... a bypass around Baton Rouge for east-west traffic on I-10 ....

The benefits of I-49 as a bypass for traffic going to/from New Orleans are somewhat limited.
If I was driving on I-10 from, say for instance, Houston and headed to a point on or south of the Westbank, such as Westwego, Grenta or Belle Chasse then using I-49 South from Lafayette to the Westbank Expressway might make sense. This is especially true if any rush hour traffic were involved. The driving distance might be slightly longer, but there might be a net savings of time gained by avoiding traffic.
If I was driving from Houston to a point in New Orleans itself or a suburb like Kenner I would probably stay on I-10, going through Baton Rouge. Taking I-49 would be well out of the way.
Long distance through traffic going to places like Texas, Florida, California, etc. will keep going through Baton Rouge and bypassing New Orleans entirely via I-12.

Of course people from the West Jeff suburbs and the Westbank portion of N.O. are going to consider I-49 more convenient. Now if you consider I-310 (which still has a good chance of carrying I-49 instead) and get public awareness of the route out it really won't be that far out of the way for East Jeff and Eastbank N.O. at all. There are plenty of people who schedule their trips west around BR's traffic versus traffic in leaving/entering the city. Remove the fear of traveling "back roads" and people may not have a problem. Removing BR and the Atchafalaya Basin from the equation is killing 2 birds with 1 stone. The key is public awareness.

Since I posted the above LaDOTD link, LaDOTD has moved its I-49 South section to its Geaux South 49 website, which describes I-49 South's Baton Rouge bypass function as follows:

The importance of the Geaux South program
... The new I-49 South ...  will provide ... an I-10 alternative for east-west traffic that by-passes the already congested Baton Rouge metropolitan area ...

Here is a snip from a LaDOTD graphic illustrating the potential bypass function (I-12 is not included):



Above said, in this April 6 Ask the Advocate mailbag, LaDOTD indicates that, at best, I-49 South will serve as a bypass for regional traffic, but will not have a noticeable effect on local traffic during peak traffic hours:

QUESTION: I wonder why no one from the DOTD (or anyone else) ever mentions the completion of Interstate 49 from Lafayette to New Orleans as a solution to our I-10/12 traffic congestion here in Baton Rouge? This would be the fastest solution since it is obviously past the planning/design stage and would be heavily federally funded. This could eliminate many of the big trucks and cars that are headed to and from New Orleans.
ANSWER: Lauren Lee, public information officer with the state Department of Transportation and Development, gives us this simple answer:
"The vast majority of traffic in Baton Rouge, including during peak periods, is local traffic, not through traffic. Further, most of the through traffic comes from I-10 to I-12.
"While the future I-49 South corridor may be a viable option for travelers wishing to bypass Baton Rouge, it will not have a noticeable impact on local traffic congestion during peak hours."

[Anthony_JK]

About time for an I-49 South update here...it's been a while.

The main justification for this project is less a bypass of Baton Rouge and more of serving the Oilpatch businesses and major South Louisiana ports, as well as serving Lafayette, Morgan City and the Houma/Thibodeaux/WestbankNOLA area with a freeway-caliber system. There may be some who would use that corridor to bypass the clusterwhack of I-10 through BTR, but that's what the Baton Rouge Loop is proposed to do, right? Most traffic wanting to bypass NOLA will use I-10 to I-12, and LA 415 to Airline Highway (US 190/61) could be an even more effective alternative if the BUMP proposal for a tollway/freeway along that corridor is realized. The proposal for a West Side Expressway along the LA1/LA 3127 corridor from Port Allen to Boutte, with connections to the Sunshine Bridge and a new bridge between Addis and St. Gabriel, could help, too. Direct improvements to I-10, including fixing the bottleneck of the 10-110 Split interchange, would be far more effective, IMHO.

[jbnv]

Drove up I-49 from Lafayette to Shreveport en route to Dallas for a weekend family vacation. I noticed that there are Clearview BGSs north of Opelousas that have FHWA numerals in the exit tabs. Furthermore, one of the BGSs for LA 8 - LA 1200 has FHWA for the exit numerals... and Clearview in the shields. 

[cjk374]

Here's a story put out in yesterday's paper about the I-49 ICC: http://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/news/local/2015/03/21/environmental-process-inner-city-connector-underway/25163103/

[bassoon1986]

Drove up I-49 from Lafayette to Shreveport en route to Dallas for a weekend family vacation. I noticed that there are Clearview BGSs north of Opelousas that have FHWA numerals in the exit tabs. Furthermore, one of the BGSs for LA 8 - LA 1200 has FHWA for the exit numerals... and Clearview in the shields. 

Yep, I see that one a lot. There's one or two for the Natchitoches exit with a clearview LA 6 numeral, too.

[roadman65]

Pretty soon I will be adding some to my flickr page of signs around Alexandria of these said signs.

[Grzrd]

Here is another link to the same opinion piece, but this publication has a model of the I-49 Connector through Lafayette:
http://www.theind.com/news/9716-guest-editorial-public-private-route-for-i-49-south?tmpl=component&layout=default&page=

This article

DOTD spokeswoman Deidra Druilhet says ... "DOTD expects to go into the design phase of the I-49 connector project in about five years."

Considering, ... that LADOTD just announced last July that they selected Stantec as the chief consultant for the I-49 Connector design process, and that an official contract would probably be delivered by no later than the end of this year, me thinks that that spokesperson is a bit late.

John Norquist needs to keep his sorrry butt our of our business .... Jackass.

I have a feeling that it is only a matter of time before Norquist turns his attention from the Shreveport I-49 ICC and other projects to the elevated I-49 Connector, too.

The people of the Sterling Grove neighborhood (just east of the proposed ROW for the I-49 Connector) might beat Norquist to the punch on that one.

Here's a story put out in yesterday's paper about the I-49 ICC: http://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/news/local/2015/03/21/environmental-process-inner-city-connector-underway/25163103/

John Norquist is quoted extensively in the article linked by cjk374 with comments about the Shreveport I-49 Inner City Connector that could also apply to the Lafayette I-49 Connector:

Those who've studied the impact of highways on inner city neighborhoods aren't convinced of the proposed connector's promise.
Some, such as former Milwaukee Mayor John Norquist, equate the hope supporters have for the economic benefits of inner city connector in Shreveport to false confidence.
"I don't know of any situation in any urban area that has benefited from putting a road in," said Norquist, who also is the former president and CEO of the Congress of New Urbanism, a nonprofit that promotes walkable, mixed-used communities. CNU has partnered with the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development, Environmental Protection Agency and Federal Highway Administration.
The organization was among a group of activists and planners – including New Orleans-based architecture and planning firm Waggonner & Ball Architects and Smart Mobility Inc. – that produced a 2010 study about the restoration of the Claiborne Avenue corridor in the Big Easy.
Much like the I-49 connector, construction of Interstate 10, or the Claiborne Avenue expressway, more than 50 years ago brought with it the promise of easy, high-speed access to would help keep inner city New Orleans energized and vibrant.
But when the state built the elevated 3.9-mile highway in the 1960s through the Claiborne Avenue corridor – a black commercial district described in reports, books and other publications as once being lively and lined with oaks – the end result was a decaying community ....
Urban and cities planners say what happened to the Claiborne Avenue corridor isn't uncommon. Across the country, the construction of interstates destroyed neighborhoods they sliced ....
Norquist argues that constructing a four-lane street with sidewalks, establishing a more efficient permitting process and developing infrastructure that serves existing streets would be more beneficial to Allendale than the connector ....
Norquist, a Wisconsin mayor from 1988 to 2004, said interstates are not made to do much for cities except funnel traffic through.
"A freeway might give you a couple of gas stations, but even then the gas stations won't usually go into a neighborhood that is otherwise deteriorated," he said.
If the proposed connector revitalizes Allendale the way local and state officials hope, Norquist said it would be the first for a highway project to do so.
"They don't work in the middle of a city. All they do is concentrate traffic and create more resolve," Norquist said.
He points to Detroit as another example of an urban area hollowed out by an interstate.
"You've got to build it back organically," Norquist said of the Allendale. "Think small. Look for opportunities to build on. There's not a magic solution."

New Orleans .................... Shreveport ........................ Has LaDOTD made much progress on the design phase for Lafayette's I-49 Connector?

[Anthony_JK]

To put it simply, Norquist doesn't know what the hell he's talking about when it comes to Louisiana.


The I-49 Connector project design process in Lafayette comes complete with an Urban Design plan for development of the entire Evangeline Thruway corridor that will be funded by the recent TIGER grant. That will ensure that the community will be involved.


And...the severe impact of taking down as important an artery as the Claiborne Elevated portion of I-10 in NOLA far outweighs the benefits of tearing it down just to please his "New Urbanist" ideology.


Either way, he's way too little and much too late to the process: the costs of re-routing I-49 around LA 3132 and I-220 render the "Loop It" proposal DOA. The current Inner City Connector proposal is still the more prefered. He'd be better off convincing the naysayers in Allendale to work with LADOTD to make the project work better rather than obstructing.

[Anthony_JK]

Oh....and as far as the design phase for I-49? LADOTD will probably begin the design phase this summer; they couldn't start until the Lafayette MPO added the TIGER grant money and I-49 Corridor Design Study to their Transportation Improvement Plan last Feburary. Things should really start moving in the design process by this fall, if not winter.

[jbnv]

The I-49 Connector project design process in Lafayette comes complete with an Urban Design plan for development of the entire Evangeline Thruway corridor that will be funded by the recent TIGER grant. That will ensure that the community will be involved.

Notice the buildings depicted in the  I-49 Connector model (which was actually made as a 3D model). They do not exist at present.

[Anthony_JK]

The I-49 Connector project design process in Lafayette comes complete with an Urban Design plan for development of the entire Evangeline Thruway corridor that will be funded by the recent TIGER grant. That will ensure that the community will be involved.

Notice the buildings depicted in the  I-49 Connector model (which was actually made as a 3D model). They do not exist at present.

That markup is from the 2007-2008 charettes developed by the ULL Community Design Workshop to initialize ideas on corridor development and ultimate design and asthetics. Totally irrelevant to the upcoming design/corridor study process.

Though, the idea of a pedestrian overpass over the freeway/railroad right around where Sixth Street/Lee Avenue used to cross sounds exciting.

[Bobby5280]

And...the severe impact of taking down as important an artery as the Claiborne Elevated portion of I-10 in NOLA far outweighs the benefits of tearing it down just to please his "New Urbanist" ideology.

I'm all for improving walk-ability and accommodating bicyclists, but tearing down existing freeways especially when they're a major route is a non-starter. Urban designers need to think a little more creatively with improving walk-ability around things like major traffic corridors. A good example is the intersection with North High Street and I-670 near downtown Columbus, Ohio. The bridge over the Interstate was altered so the street could be flanked on both sides with some new shops, like bars, a steak house, a coffee shop. It filled a gap in a trendy, night life oriented part of the city. The freeway bridge seemed like a barrier before, but now it's hardly visible to any of the foot traffic crossing that bridge.

I think it is a big stretch for new urbanists to blame the Claiborne Elevated for that part of New Orleans going into the toilet. That part of New Orleans turned into a freaking combat zone. That's why the businesses vanished. I've been to some of the most dangerous parts of New York City back in the late 80's and early 90's when NYC was averaging 2000 murders yearly in the five boroughs. None of those places scare me quite as much as Iberville.

There are other parts of New Orleans spanned or bisected by freeways and they didn't devolve into a nightmare. The Westbank Expressway didn't ruin Gretna, Harvey and Marrero.

With Shreveport, the I-49 Inner City Connector isn't going to ruin anything because most of that neighborhood was already in ruin. If anything I-49 could help revitalize it. 

[codyg1985]

And...the severe impact of taking down as important an artery as the Claiborne Elevated portion of I-10 in NOLA far outweighs the benefits of tearing it down just to please his "New Urbanist" ideology.

I'm all for improving walk-ability and accommodating bicyclists, but tearing down existing freeways especially when they're a major route is a non-starter. Urban designers need to think a little more creatively with improving walk-ability around things like major traffic corridors. A good example is the intersection with North High Street and I-670 near downtown Columbus, Ohio. The bridge over the Interstate was altered so the street could be flanked on both sides with some new shops, like bars, a steak house, a coffee shop. It filled a gap in a trendy, night life oriented part of the city. The freeway bridge seemed like a barrier before, but now it's hardly visible to any of the foot traffic crossing that bridge.

Now that is cool. I have heard of some older bridges in England or somewhere that have shops and things on it that span rivers. It would be harder to completely disguise the freeway in New Orleans since it is elevated, but you could easily put shops and such directly underneath I-10. Of course, that area isn't exactly trendy.

[Grzrd]

To put it simply, Norquist doesn't know what the hell he's talking about when it comes to Louisiana.

This Letter to the Editor published in the April 15 Shreveport Times by a Shreveport resident suggests that the existing I-49 interchange with the Bert Kouns Industrial Loop in the Shreveport area provides a more pertinent comparison with Allendale than does the elevated I-10/ Claiborne Avenue in New Orleans, and it also suggests that Norquist does not know what he is talking about when it comes to Allendale and Shreveport in general:

Reading the "I-49 Connector Welcome to Allendale"  article started me to think of why some would indicate doom for the project without looking at some very close successes.
It is a question I ask myself of why did Interstate 49 work for Bert Kouns, but not 70th Street? The Claiborne Avenue corridor (New Orleans) was chosen as an example of why interstate corridors fail to produce the improvements that such communities desire. Allendale is not Claiborne Avenue and whatever the stated failures of Claiborne Avenue (families and businesses leaving over time) should be noted and plans/policies put into place that would produce the opposite effect, the Bert Kouns effect. It appears that there was a commitment to invest in the Bert Kouns/I-49 interchange and support for those businesses continues.
Allendale should not be looked at as an island of a community, but as part of the overall commitment to redevelop downtown. The proximity of Allendale to downtown is indisputable and when plans are made for access to downtown off of I-49, businesses, housing and government services should also be factored in for Allendale ....
Economic development in Shreveport via above minimum-wage jobs would help in securing incomes that are capable of investing in medium-ranged priced homes. The Lofts success is a prime example of how millennial lifestyles can generate new energy downtown. But a determination would have to be made for what type of community renewal Allendale should receive. Former Milwaukee Mayor John Norquist looks at present day Allendale and only sees an interstate and a few gas stations. When the real question should be is what kind of investments can be generated for a planned futuristic community?

It's fun to read an opinion of someone with local knowledge.

[mwb1848]

I'm a lifelong road geek and an accredited member of the Congress for the New Urbanism.

I encourage us to embrace the really fascinating challenges which can come along with the removal of obsolete freeways like the Claiborne Expressway. It becomes a really interesting discussion of how to re-sign, how to re-route, how to reimagine infrastructure.

Same for I-49. While I love the theoretical continuity of building I-49 right through the heart of Lafayette, it's so much more important that Lafayette be allowed to be a place... not just a background for a freeway.

I'm sure there's little disagreement that the Evangeline Thruway fails at any mission. It doesn't successfully convey thru-traffic, and the one-way couplets (as they have any many American cities) don't allow for the creation of a human-scaled environment.

Important things don't belong under freeways; pedestrians don't use pedestrian bridges if there's not a compelling reason to walk among walkable environments.

New Urbanists aren't anti-freeway, just as roadgeeks aren't anti-pedestrian.  Freeways should be awesome freeways; city streets should be awesome city streets. We've just got to figure out what really belongs where.