Parish Road Plan Would Relieve Traffic Congestion on Major Highways in Central

CENTRAL — City-Parish Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome has a Parish Road Plan on the ballot Saturday, Dec. 8, and it’s a sweet deal for Central!  The plan provides $88 million in capital construction in the City of Central, but the cost to Central residents will be only about $1.4 million a year from a 1/2¢ sales tax.

The annual cost of the improvements in Central would be about $4.7 million a year (bonds issued at 3.5 percent interest amortized over 30 years), but residents of Central would only pay $1.4 million of that, or about $54 a person each year in sales taxes. Taxes collected in the rest of the parish would pay the difference.

The two projects are the four-laning of Hooper Road (with a center turn lane) at a cost of $50 million and the four-laning of Wax Road (also with a center turn lane) at a cost of $38 million. They are two of the nearly 70 projects to be funded parishwide by the tax.

Central Mayor Jr. Shelton has endorsed the plan, and Mayor-elect David Barrow had kind words for it Wednesday. He said the projects are much needed. He said, “If you support the plan, great! If you don’t, how do you propose that we four-lane Hooper and Wax?”

He said the state does not have the money to fund these projects.

Fred Raiford, director of transportation and drainage for the City-Parish government, said the Hooper Road project should be high on the priority list because it is greatly needed and “ready to go”. He said the environmental studies and design of the project are complete.

On the other hand, Wax Road is new to the list. It was added at the request of Central Mayor Jr. Shelton, and the traffic counts well justified it. However, because it is a new project, Raiford said the environmental analysis and design work have not been done.

Raiford, who served as director of the City-Parish Department of Public Works for 15 years under several mayors, played a major role in selecting the projects in the Parish Road Plan.

He told the Chamber of Commerce of East Baton Rouge Parish meeting Tuesday at Café Américain in Baton Rouge that the Mayor-President instructed that the road plan not be done on a political basis. As a result, the projects parishwide are totally data-driven. In others words, they are based on existing and projected traffic counts and other objective criteria, rather than political muscle being exerted by local elected officials.

Funding of the plan is through a sales tax, which everyone will pay, rather than a property tax, which falls more heavily on the elderly and others on fixed incomes.

In addition to the cost-benefit of Central’s getting $88 million for Hooper and Wax at a cost of $1.4 million a year, the plan has six new or improved routes that would redirect commuters away from Central.

Commuters between East Baton Rouge and Livingston parishes must choose from among only bridges across the Amite — I-12, Florida Blvd., and Magnolia Bridge in Central. During morning and afternoon commutes, many roads in Central are jammed with Livingston residents trying to cross the river at Magnolia Bridge.

The six new or improved ways to get to Livingston Parish without going through Central are:

Route 1 – The plan calls for a stretch of road created by extending N. Sherwood Forest across Greenwell Springs Road to Joor and greatly improving Mickens all the way to Hooper. This route should divert a large amount of traffic away from Magnolia Bridge.

Route 2 – Airline Highway will be widened to six lanes from I-110 all the way to Prairieville. South Choctaw will be four-laned to the Central Thruway. This will encourage commuter to go down Airline to S. Choctaw and use Florida to cross to Livingston.

Route 3 – The completion of the four-laning of S. Choctaw will encourage commuters in downtown Baton Rouge to go east on Choctaw and S. Choctaw to Denham Springs.

Route 4 – Major improvements to Florida Blvd. will make it attractive to use Florida to go directly to Livingston.

Route 5 – Florida to six-laned Airline to I-12.

Route 6 – Six-laned Airline to I-12.

Voters will decide Dec. 8.

— By Woody Jenkins, Editor, Central City News