With the Essen Lane widening project just a month away from completion, perhaps the only people more excited than motorists for the construction to end are those who operate businesses along the congested stretch of Essen between Perkins Road and Interstate 10.
“It’s been terrible,” says Justin Alford, whose family owns the Benny’s Car Wash on Essen. “Customers can’t get to us. If you look at Essen at 2 p.m., it’s like a parking lot out there.”
For Alford, the construction means less customers and, consequently, declining sales. His neighbor, Norm Bacon, who manages the Essen Centre commercial office building, agrees, saying the ongoing road work has steered interest away from his complex.
And Bacon has numbers to prove it: Four of the office building’s six floors are vacant, largely due to the area’s traffic problems, he says. Still, he acknowledges the widening project will be worth the temporary burden in the long term.
Red River Bank Baton Rouge Market President David Thompson thinks so, too. That’s why the bank has an Essen Lane branch under construction that will become its main Baton Rouge office this fall.
While clients have told Thompson they avoid the Essen branch because of dense traffic, he says infrastructure plans—including the roadway widening and the proposed Baton Rouge to New Orleans passenger rail—contributed to his decision to invest on the area.
David Floyd, director of the LSU Rural Life Museum, says while he is “excited for the possibilities” the project brings, he wants officials to add a left-turn light for motorists entering the museum.
“We don’t have a light now, and it’s impossible during a normal business day to turn left,” Floyd says.
The $16 million widening project will expand the roadway from five to six lanes, add more shoulder space and create a center turning lane between the Perkins and I-10. Approximately 55,000 drivers traverse the roadway daily.
The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development has been handling the project, which is being funded by the state and the city-parish’s Green Light Plan. Construction began last September.
“It’s not often you get to watch a community improvement happen before your very eyes,” Bacon says. “But it’s been a headache.”
