alon504
Apr 26, 2007, 1:37 AM
This is ridiculous...what happens when construction occurs. This is almost 3 accidents a day and most of the significant construction occurs during overnight hours, as it is law. It's the reason I try to avoid the interstates in inner city areas whenever I'm visiting any larger city in this country.
CHOKE POINT
Interstate 10 in Metairie has become a slow-motion marathon of frustration that has averaged almost three accidents every day Wednesday, April 25, 2007By Richard Rainey
The lane suddenly narrows. Cars creep in on all sides. Trucks loom ahead. Brake lights flash. Your rear-view mirror is filled with the grill of an 18-wheeler.
It's not the sequel to Stephen King's "Trucks," but the almost routine experience of driving Interstate 10 in East Jefferson for much of the past nine years.
"Definitely a nightmare," said commuter Tamar Meguerditchian, who makes a daily drive between Destrehan and New Orleans.
The current construction, the fifth project in an eight-part program that began in 1998, has been particularly vexing because it's on the busiest stretch of highway in Louisiana: I-10 between the Interstate 610 split and Causeway Boulevard. A contractor for the state Department of Transportation and Development is adding lanes, erecting sound barriers and improving drainage at one of the worst traffic bottlenecks around.
Driving has grown risky there. In the one-year period ending April 17, State Police said they responded to 1,036 wrecks in the construction zone -- an average of almost three every day -- and wrote 1,450 citations. Three incidents in just the past four months illustrate southeast Louisiana's heavy reliance on I-10 and the potential inconvenience and hazards of driving in a construction zone:
-- On Jan. 12, an overhead electrical line collapsed near Bonnabel Boulevard after a hydraulic crane struck it. That shut down the highway in both directions for 20 minutes and snarled traffic for much longer.
-- On Feb. 21, a truck carrying electrical transformers crashed at the split, spilling oil on the highway and closing the westbound lanes for 12 hours.
-- On April 13, a three-vehicle wreck near Bonnabel touched off several other wrecks and a dump truck fire, halting eastbound traffic for more than four hours.
'A tough one'
Police say the construction itself is not to blame for most wrecks. They say the fault usually lies with drivers who gawk at the road work or follow others too closely.
"That is truly a choke point that'll make you go to drinking," said State Police Capt. Ken Curlee, commander of Kenner-based Troop B. "It's a tough one."
Meguerditchian used to rely entirely on I-10 for her commute, but doing that now "would drive me crazy," she said.
Now she chooses her route by what she hears on the radio: An inbound wreck near Williams Boulevard in Kenner takes her to Airline Drive, then back onto the interstate in Metairie. If she hears that a car has crashed closer to Bonnabel, she takes Veterans Memorial Boulevard to West End Boulevard and slips back onto I-10 near the split. If traffic mysteriously slows to a crawl through Metairie, she veers onto the Clearview Parkway off ramp only to sneak down the service road and merge back into traffic after passing Causeway Boulevard, where much of the construction begins.
"It's pretty interesting," Meguerditchian said, adding in the same breath, "I hate it."
The good news is that the current project is six months ahead of schedule. It began in February 2006, and the transportation department now expects Boh Bros. Construction Co. of New Orleans to wrap up in October 2008.
"The contractor is doing better than we thought," project engineer Larry Langenstein said.
Testing budget, patience
The work, however, is running over budget. Initially expected to cost $69 million, it's now pegged at $71.4 million. Langenstein said the extra cost can be attributed to additional drainage work, hiring extra police officers in the work zone and installing closed-circuit cameras to monitor traffic.
When the lanes are completed and the sound walls are in place, the next contract will be to build the flyover bridge at the Bonnabel exit. So far, only a few support columns are visible rising from the dust kicked up daily by the work crews. Langenstein said the transportation department expects that work to start in 2009.
While all the construction is designed to relieve traffic congestion on I-10, it is seen by some as adding congestion to side streets. The current I-10 work has not only slowed traffic on the highway but has often choked the flow on the service roads east and west of Bonnabel. The Jefferson Parish Council is scheduled to consider hiring Krebs, LaSalle, LeMieux Consultants Inc. to analyze how traffic affects neighborhoods around Bonnabel Boulevard.
Curlee urged patience, and he warns drivers not to follow other cars too closely.
Faye Lala of Metairie has been traversing the highway for a quarter-century, and she says the road improvements in the past nine years have done little to ease congestion. It's not the tarmac that worries her; it's other drivers.
"I think people are more disrespectful. They're rude," she said. "We do not have nice drivers here."
. . . . . . .
Richard Rainey can be reached at rrainey@timespicayune.com or (504) 883-7052.
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-8/1177481389124760.xml&coll=1&thispage=1
CHOKE POINT
Interstate 10 in Metairie has become a slow-motion marathon of frustration that has averaged almost three accidents every day Wednesday, April 25, 2007By Richard Rainey
The lane suddenly narrows. Cars creep in on all sides. Trucks loom ahead. Brake lights flash. Your rear-view mirror is filled with the grill of an 18-wheeler.
It's not the sequel to Stephen King's "Trucks," but the almost routine experience of driving Interstate 10 in East Jefferson for much of the past nine years.
"Definitely a nightmare," said commuter Tamar Meguerditchian, who makes a daily drive between Destrehan and New Orleans.
The current construction, the fifth project in an eight-part program that began in 1998, has been particularly vexing because it's on the busiest stretch of highway in Louisiana: I-10 between the Interstate 610 split and Causeway Boulevard. A contractor for the state Department of Transportation and Development is adding lanes, erecting sound barriers and improving drainage at one of the worst traffic bottlenecks around.
Driving has grown risky there. In the one-year period ending April 17, State Police said they responded to 1,036 wrecks in the construction zone -- an average of almost three every day -- and wrote 1,450 citations. Three incidents in just the past four months illustrate southeast Louisiana's heavy reliance on I-10 and the potential inconvenience and hazards of driving in a construction zone:
-- On Jan. 12, an overhead electrical line collapsed near Bonnabel Boulevard after a hydraulic crane struck it. That shut down the highway in both directions for 20 minutes and snarled traffic for much longer.
-- On Feb. 21, a truck carrying electrical transformers crashed at the split, spilling oil on the highway and closing the westbound lanes for 12 hours.
-- On April 13, a three-vehicle wreck near Bonnabel touched off several other wrecks and a dump truck fire, halting eastbound traffic for more than four hours.
'A tough one'
Police say the construction itself is not to blame for most wrecks. They say the fault usually lies with drivers who gawk at the road work or follow others too closely.
"That is truly a choke point that'll make you go to drinking," said State Police Capt. Ken Curlee, commander of Kenner-based Troop B. "It's a tough one."
Meguerditchian used to rely entirely on I-10 for her commute, but doing that now "would drive me crazy," she said.
Now she chooses her route by what she hears on the radio: An inbound wreck near Williams Boulevard in Kenner takes her to Airline Drive, then back onto the interstate in Metairie. If she hears that a car has crashed closer to Bonnabel, she takes Veterans Memorial Boulevard to West End Boulevard and slips back onto I-10 near the split. If traffic mysteriously slows to a crawl through Metairie, she veers onto the Clearview Parkway off ramp only to sneak down the service road and merge back into traffic after passing Causeway Boulevard, where much of the construction begins.
"It's pretty interesting," Meguerditchian said, adding in the same breath, "I hate it."
The good news is that the current project is six months ahead of schedule. It began in February 2006, and the transportation department now expects Boh Bros. Construction Co. of New Orleans to wrap up in October 2008.
"The contractor is doing better than we thought," project engineer Larry Langenstein said.
Testing budget, patience
The work, however, is running over budget. Initially expected to cost $69 million, it's now pegged at $71.4 million. Langenstein said the extra cost can be attributed to additional drainage work, hiring extra police officers in the work zone and installing closed-circuit cameras to monitor traffic.
When the lanes are completed and the sound walls are in place, the next contract will be to build the flyover bridge at the Bonnabel exit. So far, only a few support columns are visible rising from the dust kicked up daily by the work crews. Langenstein said the transportation department expects that work to start in 2009.
While all the construction is designed to relieve traffic congestion on I-10, it is seen by some as adding congestion to side streets. The current I-10 work has not only slowed traffic on the highway but has often choked the flow on the service roads east and west of Bonnabel. The Jefferson Parish Council is scheduled to consider hiring Krebs, LaSalle, LeMieux Consultants Inc. to analyze how traffic affects neighborhoods around Bonnabel Boulevard.
Curlee urged patience, and he warns drivers not to follow other cars too closely.
Faye Lala of Metairie has been traversing the highway for a quarter-century, and she says the road improvements in the past nine years have done little to ease congestion. It's not the tarmac that worries her; it's other drivers.
"I think people are more disrespectful. They're rude," she said. "We do not have nice drivers here."
. . . . . . .
Richard Rainey can be reached at rrainey@timespicayune.com or (504) 883-7052.
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-8/1177481389124760.xml&coll=1&thispage=1