Black tire tracks left by vehicles rolling over newly laid asphalt along U.S. Highway 90 in Paradis mark the spot of a controversy – the start of work for a raised median in Paradis.
“We’ve been asking for something to be done there to improve safety because of all the rear-end accidents,” said Paul Hogan, St. Charles Parish councilman whose District IV includes Paradis. “I’m glad to see it coming, but a lot of people won’t be too happy.”
The state Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD) is doing the project despite opposition in Paradis and Boutte officials earlier successfully fending off the raised median as unsafe and hurting businesses.
DOTD spokeswoman Bambi Hall said a public hearing on the project held in 2014 drew both opposition and support. But Hogan said they are opposed to a raised median, not a striped one.
Hall said construction started in July on the $2.1 million project, which will provide median crossover improvements on U.S. 90 from LA 306 to Early Street. Work should be completed by January.
“The public is currently seeing the existing roadway being widened to make room for the raised median, which will divide eastbound and westbound traffic,” she said. “The project also includes construction of turn lanes and other access management improvements.”
Hogan said he and Greg Miller, state legislator for District 56, sat down with DOTD and requested a striped median (a middle lane in Paradis similar to the one in Boutte that allows motorists to merge into traffic and turn into businesses) instead of a raised one in 2014, but he said DOTD told him it doesn’t install “suicide lanes” anymore, maintaining traffic from opposing lanes entering the same turn lane ended up hitting head-on.
Hogan said, when he questioned the recent construction of a raised median in Houma, that DOTD told him the project was designed several years ago and only recently funded.Hall said she was unaware of any references to “suicide lanes.”
Hogan said he’s getting complaints about the project.
“One of the issues is some of the businesses along there don’t have a lot of parking area,” he said. “Some of their parking went to the state project – a little bit. They’re eliminating the shoulders to create the center lane and it will eat into these local businesses’ parking and will cause them problems. I’ve already received complaints and concerns about it.”
When Boutte faced the same situation in 2014, public outcry grew to such a level that the DOTD passed on the planned raised median with four turn lanes and instead went along with a striped one with a fifth lane.
The DOTD initially wanted to replace a mile-long center turning lane there that allowed motorists to access businesses on both sides of the highway and merge into traffic.
At the time, Councilwoman Julia Fisher-Perrier told state officials that Boutte’s planned raised median would create a safety hazard and could be detrimental to area businesses. Fisher-Perrier, who opposed the Boutte project since seeing it in the state plan, said forcing motorists to U-turn on Highway 90 – as Hogan said could occur with Paradis’ raised median project – could cause accidents.
She further argued Boutte businesses would have suffered with this plan, saying the raised median might turn away customers who didn’t want to maneuver a turning lane to make a U-turn to access businesses.
She said these points were successfully made in a meeting held by State Sen. Gary Smith with local residents, business owners and DOTD engineers.
At that time, Smith said the meeting was intended to show engineers firsthand traffic patterns in Boutte and how motorists use the highway. Soon after this meeting, DOTD Secretary Sheri Labas announced the project would be altered with the fifth lane intact.
It was known then that the second phase of the area median project would focus on Paradis. By December 2014, it was determined the state wanted to go with the same plan for Paradis that Boutte vehemently rejected as unsafe.
At that time, the DOTD’s Hall said raised medians with controlled turn lanes reduce the number of “conflict points.” She said in fifth lanes, such as the one that exists in Boutte, drivers come from all directions. But Hogan told her he wanted to see hard data supporting that claim.
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