Despite initial concerns, Baton Rouge-area residents generally back the state’s plan to install traffic signals on Interstate 12 entrance ramps between Baton Rouge and Walker, officials said.
“I am not hearing any criticism on it at all,” said state Rep. J. Rogers Pope, R-Livingston.
“The vast majority of them are behind it,” Pope said of residents he has heard discuss the topic.
The signals, which are called ramp meters, are common in many other states but will be the first of their kind in Louisiana.
They will force vehicles to proceed one at a time along entrance ramps onto I-12, roughly at foursecond intervals, and make merging easier.
State officials plan to install the meters on 16 ramps at nine interchanges between Essen Lane in Baton Rouge and the Walker/La. 447 exit.
If successful, they will be added on parts of I-10 in the Baton Rouge area and other parts of the state, officials said.
Bids on the first phase of the work are set to go out Jan. 27.
The meters are to begin operation in April, and possibly earlier. The total cost is supposed to be $1.5 million to $2 million.
The plan, which was unveiled in October, triggered initial concerns among some lawmakers and motorists on whether they would work.
But the overwhelming majority of those who attended public hearings in Baton Rouge, Walker and Denham Springs said they back the plan.
“I really think the community realizes that there are problems on I-12 and they are open to proactive solutions,” Sherri LeBas, deputy secretary for the state Department of Transportation and Development, said this week.
LeBas, who also is acting chief engineer for the department, attended all three public hearings.
The stretch of I-12 that is getting the meters is a part of a corridor between Baton Rouge and Hammond where 10 people died in traffic accidents over a three-month period in 2007.
State Sen. Dale Erdey, R-Livingston, attended the public hearings on the plan in Walker and Denham Springs.
“I think that, for the most part, people are not overly excited but are looking forward to trying something new and to improved traffic flow on the interstates,” Erdey said.
The meters are set to operate primarily during peak commuter times — westbound from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. and eastbound from 2 p.m. until 7 p.m.
Erdey said he and others have been assured by state officials the meters will be turned off if they cause backups on feeder roads.
“That was our major concern,” he said.
Huey Dugas, director of transportation for the Capital Region Planning Commission, said he has long backed ramp meters and seen how they operate in other states.
Pope, who also attended the public hearings in Walker and Denham Springs, said the ramp meters are backed by the mayors of both cities.
The state is also widening I-12 to three lanes.
That work extends eastbound from O’Neal Lane through Juban Road and westbound from Pete’s Highway to O’Neal Lane. The cost is $131 million.
The state plans to install ramp meters on 14 ramps initially. After the widening work is done, they will be installed on ramps to eastbound lanes at O’Neal Lane and Range Road.
By Will Sentell
Source: The Advocate