US 79 BY-PASS soon to open

[cjk374]

The signs are up on the new by-pass around Homer, LA.  Instead of (what I was told was to be) LA 3244 signs going up, the new road is signed as US 79 BY-PASS.  YOU READ IT RIGHT...it is a stand-alone by-pass route w/the BY-PASS banner under the directional banner!  If I can figure out how, I'll try to post a pic of the new signs.  If someone can beat me to it, that would be even better.  

It opened Wednesday.

[cjk374]

Thank you aaroads for the help of getting this pic posted.

[rte66man]

Am I reading the Speed Limit sign correctly as 55 m.p.h? Why so low? I would have thought it would be 65.

[froggie]

2-lane road.  That's why.

[agentsteel53]

2-lane road.  That's why.

that is a really good two-laner.  one state over, it would be signed for 75.

[Hot Rod Hootenanny]

2-lane road.  That's why.

that is a really good two-laner.  one state over, it would be signed for 75.

500 yds doesn't make a good two-laner. We're talking about a two mile bypass of some podunk town. Not the twining of Airline Hwy between BR and NOLA.

[froggie]

that is a really good two-laner.  one state over, it would be signed for 75.

Not for about 500 miles...

[cjk374]

Homer is a podunk town by some standards. (You know it's bad when Wal-Mart LEAVES town instead of staying and putting up a Supercenter!)   It is the parish seat (read "county seat")for Claiborne Parish.  It is also the crossroads of 3 busy routes, that all meet in a courthouse square--US 79, LA 9 (goes to Jct. City, LA/AR and meets US 167 to El Dorado, AR), and LA 146 (the direct link to Ruston, LA, the much larger parish seat of Lincoln Parish).  On the north side of Homer is the east-west thoroughfare, LA 2.  Tucked away in all of these woods surrounding Homer are hundreds of gas and oil wells.  This means LOTS of 18-wheeler traffic, on top of the other 18-wheelers that traverse these routes going to other places.  My office is located on US 79/LA9 just south of the courthouse square.  The truck traffic has diminished some, but should dwindle more as word of this by-pass gets around in the truck world.

The by-pass has already had a few of bad wrecks on it (2 in a 12-hour period 2 weeks ago).  Maybe the engineers will put a traffic light on the south end of the by-pass soon.

Apparently in LA, a 2-lane road (with or without paved shoulders) is 55 MPH maximum authorized speed.  A divided 4-lane road with crossovers and intersections at grade is a maximum of 65 MPH.  Then interstate-grade roads, outside of population-areas of 75,000+ (60 MPH), is 70 MPH.  I wish LA would change over to the way TX determines their speed limits (except for the nite-time speed limits).

[agentsteel53]

I wish LA would change over to the way TX determines their speed limits (except for the nite-time speed limits).

I wish every state would!  Texas has the confidence in their road planning skills to declare that each road has the appropriate quantity of lanes to deal with a given traffic level, and therefore each can be driven at 75mph when out in the sticks.

[cjk374]

They have now put up signs "multiplexing" the truck route for LA 9, which originally ran down (from north to south) LA 2 west to US 79 south through the courthouse square.  Now LA 9 TRUCK continues west on LA 2 and turns south on US 79 BYPASS.