J-turn work to start soon; Should cut down on worst crashes

Motorists in the Tri-City area should see work begin within the next couple of weeks along U.S. 90 to install J-turns to try to eliminate dangerous T-bone, or right angle, crashes.
State Rep. Sam Jones, D-Franklin, expects work to begin on a $16.5 million project to construct J-turns along U.S. 90 shortly after Jan. 1 from the Patterson area to Berwick.
The J-turns are temporary traffic safety measures that will stay in place until permanent overpasses are built to turn U.S. 90 into Interstate 49 South from Lafayette to New Orleans. Overpasses to be built in east St. Mary include ones by Red Cypress Road near Patterson, Southeast Boulevard in Bayou Vista and Thorguson Road in Berwick.
As part of the project, workers will re-overlay both sides of the highway along that same stretch to make the road smoother and an "easier ride," Jones said.
J-turns prevent people cutting across oncoming traffic to turn left and thus try to eliminate T-bone crashes that happen along that stretch, particularly in Patterson.
A J-turn forces drivers to turn right, then slowly exit the highway to the left and drive through a full circle to be able to travel in the opposite direction, Jones said.
"You're never going to come straight across once the J-turns are finished," Jones said.
The contractor for the project got the go ahead to begin construction earlier this month. Jones hopes the J-turns will be finished by Christmas 2017.
About 80 percent of the money from the work comes from the federal government. The rest comes from state funds.
Work will likely begin in the Patterson area first and move toward Berwick, Jones said.
Construction of the J-turns shouldn't disrupt traffic much because work will be taking place mostly around the median of the highway. Overlay work will be slightly more disruptive, but should only take about three weeks to complete from whenever that work starts, he said.
When funding becomes available to construct permanent overpasses on U.S. 90 from Patterson to Berwick depends on whether the Legislature passes a transportation bill in the 2017 Regular Session and if voters then approve the funding in an election.
Jones plans on bringing a transportation bill to the 2017 session, and the bill "will be heavily weighted toward getting the I-49 project and our overpasses done from Lafayette all the way to Luling to the 310 and even beyond that to Westwego."
Once the Four Corners overpass is finished on the far west end of St. Mary by Christmas 2017, there will be controlled access to U.S. 90 from Lafayette to the Wax Lake Outlet outside of Patterson, he said.
"You're only going to be able to get on and off the overpass from Wax Lake to Jeanerette at the interchanges, just like it is from the Atchafalaya going toward Amelia," Jones said.
Additionally, in 2017, Jones expects to secure $13 million to do maintenance work and paint the La. 182 bridge and $16 million for the U.S. 90 bridge in Morgan City from the state budget. If everything goes according to plan, that maintenance work could begin sometime in 2018.
Jones started the process two years ago of going through the steps to get state funds to maintain those two bridges. He began the process just after winning a fight to keep state officials from closing the La. 182 bridge by declaring the importance of it as an evacuation route for emergency.
"It's still a very important bridge just for commerce and interaction for people that just don't want to get on the interstate," Jones said. "There's always a good reason to have a second outlet in case the big bridge has a bad accident on it or something like that."
Upgrades to the U.S. 90 bridge will allow officials "to spend a little money now and get another five or six, seven years of life out of it until we get in better shape with the transportation fund," he said.
"And, also, it gives us a time to wait and see what the federal government's going to do with the new administration coming in," Jones said.