Eight out of every 10 vehicles slogging across the current “new” Mississippi Bridge and then clogging Interstate 10 are being driven by locals crawling their way across the Baton Rouge metro.
“But you already knew that … right?” asks Business Report Associate Publisher JR Ball in his new opinion piece.
Only a fool—or someone remarkably blind to the local private school decals adorning all those pickup trucks, SUVs, luxury sedans and Subarus—would think otherwise.
Which is precisely why your world should be turning upside down by the jaw-dropping reality that our cavalcade of highly paid transportation “experts” were utterly clueless about Baton Rouge’s worst-kept traffic secret as they go about trying to decide where to add a bridge to alleviate traffic woes, Ball writes.
“That is almost unbelievable that it is 80% local traffic,” a stunned Fred Raiford, who oversees transportation for East Baton Rouge Parish, was quoted as saying by The Advocate. “It’s a little eye-opening.”
But his information has been around since the Kip Holden administration when building a public-private northern loop around Baton Rouge was the latest big idea.
An engineer Ball consulted for his column says the only feasible location for a new new bridge—if the goal is unclogging the daily jam on the existing new bridge—is one that goes from the west bank and ties into East Baton Rouge somewhere between Brightside Drive and Bluebonnet Boulevard.
However, the officials tasked with deciding where a new bridge will be built are bent on putting the $3 billion span over the river in an out-of-the-way spot, a spot that projections show will only reduce I-10 traffic through Baton Rouge by 19%.
Why aren’t they seeking the best return on investment?
Read Ball’s full column from the latest edition of Business Report. Send comments to editor@businessreport.com.
