J-turns will be interim fix for U.S. 90

Within the next year, Tri-City residents should begin to see J-turns installed in the Patterson area to cut down on the number of wrecks along U.S. 90. The proposed safety measures will be a temporary fix before state leaders eventually upgrade the highway to interstate quality as part of the project to complete Interstate 49 South from Lafayette to New Orleans.
The I-49 South Coalition, state and community leaders held a news conference earlier this month to push to complete the I-49 Connector in Lafayette, which is the most expensive piece of the project, The Daily Review reported.
In St. Mary Parish, state transportation officials have set aside $3 million to $5 million to construct an “interim safety project” that is currently in the design stage, state Sen. Bret Allain, R-Franklin, said. The proposed interim project involves “construction of safety measures known as J-turns” on U.S. 90 for a nine mile stretch from Calumet to Berwick, Allain said.
J-turns eliminate vehicles from being able to turn left directly across a highway from a side road. Instead, motorists would have to turn right and then make a U-turn at a designated spot in order to turn left, Allain said.
State transportation officials can reduce the number of T-bone, or most lethal crashes by 75 percent with the installation of J-turns, Allain said.
“That’s what I think we need to at least provide safety for our people,” Allain said.
Patterson Mayor Rodney Grogan said the installation of J-turns in the Patterson area is scheduled to begin in about six to nine months. Last year, state transportation officials and state Rep. Sam Jones, D-Franklin, came to Patterson in the midst of the many accidents in that area of U.S. 90. State officials determined that Patterson has too many intersections, Grogan said. Therefore, Patterson got moved up the state priority list to construct the J-turns, Grogan said.
The entire interim safety project from Calumet to Berwick should finish within three years, Allain said.
Area legislators are trying to identify funding sources for the permanent St. Mary Parish portion of the I-49 South project including federal money, Allain said. Area leaders want to lower the percentage of state matching funds required to receive federal funds by designating I-49 South “as a roadway of national importance,” he said.
“If we can do that, we can lower the match from the current 20 percent down to either 10 or maybe even five percent,” Allain said. “It would make it a lot easier to come up with the local matches.”
Parish officials got state transportation leaders “to look directly at our project,” which covers Ricohoc to Berwick, Allain said. State transportation officials even assigned the project a project number, he said.
That project involves upgrading an 11-mile section in St. Mary Parish to interstate standards, Allain said. Leaders have been able to lower the original estimated cost of that portion from $460 million to $250 million to complete that stretch, Allain said.
Allain, who drives that section regularly, calls that stretch of U.S. 90 “the gauntlet,” he said.
“There’s people jumping out in front of other people. Not a week goes by I don’t see a wreck there,” Allain said.
The first project along that 11-mile route on U.S. 90 in St. Mary Parish will probably be to construct an overpass near Red Cypress Road in the Patterson area, he said.
The overpass that will stretch from Red Cypress Road to Veterans Boulevard in the Patterson area should probably start construction within four to six years, Grogan said.
The next overpass to start construction will either be in the Patterson and Calumet areas, providing access to the Harry P Williams Memorial Airport, or at Southeast Boulevard in Bayou Vista near Walmart, Allain said.
The Ricohoc to Berwick project also entails eventually putting an overpass at Thorguson Road in Berwick, he said.
If area officials don’t find additional funds for the Ricohoc to Berwick project, the process to make those highway improvements could take a decade, Allain said.
“If we find additional funding, hopefully, it’ll be a lot sooner than that,” Allain said.
Legislators are also trying to get funds to build an additional bridge across the Calumet Cut where motorists could cross the waterway without having to get on the new interstate, Allain said.
Completion of I-49 South will also provide a huge economic boost for St. Mary Parish, he said.
“It’s a proven fact that once interstates are in place, growth happens all around them … We’ve seen as much as a 30 percent increase in entire parishes (growth) over a 10-year span because of the influence of the interstates,” Allain said.
Though safety is the No. 1 priority of the project, the “great, added benefit” is the increased industry that sets up along interstates, Allain said.
“That’s what we hope is the future of St. Mary Parish, and that’s what we hope to capitalize on,” Allain said.
This story was written by Zachary Fitzgerald. He can be reached at zfitzgerald@daily-review.com.