Members of the Lafayette Consolidated Council questioned traffic and transportation officials Monday about some $21 million dollars in highway projects and transit-system upgrades, roughly $9.5 million of which can be funded through federal stimulus money.
Road projects on the list include resurfacing University Avenue from Pinhook Road to Carencro, lighting upgrades at the I-10/I-49 interchange, and widening U.S. Hwy. 90 from four to six lanes between Morgan Street and Albertson Parkway in Broussard. The projects were developed through the Metropolitan Planning Organization, which comprises council members along with volunteer committees that make recommendations on priorities.
Not all the projects can be done with federal stimulus money, and some council members questioned how the list was prioritized. The council could vote March 24 on whether to direct $5.5 million in stimulus money to the project in Broussard, according to City-Parish President Joey Durel. The state has already funded a $20 million project that will widen U.S. 90 from Pinhook Road to Morgan Street in Broussard.
In other council business, Tony Tramel, LCG’s director of traffic and transportation, acknowledged that the $5.2 million list of potential upgrades to the city’s bus system is an either/or proposition.
"We can’t have our cake and eat it, too?" asked District 3 councilman Brandon Shelvin, referring on one side to a proposed $2.5 million upgrade to the Rosa Parks Transportation Center downtown and on the other side to the remaining $2.7 million split among 13 other projects including the purchase of two new buses, hurricane-proofing bus shelters and upgrading transit communications systems. Tramel indicated that the level of stimulus funding would allow LCG to either upgrade the Rosa Parks Transportation Center or do the other 13 projects, but not to do both.
... written by acadianacuckoo , March 18, 2009 - 12:32 pm
me wouldnt never want to have to wait for a bus in da middle of hurrycane when it is never even hurrycane proofed
... written by Molly6 , March 18, 2009 - 04:48 pm
In, or before, 1988, signs went up on Verot Schl Rd that say "Caution: Substandard Roadway". Its a STATE road. How long does it take to get a state road resurfaced? The same with Eloi Broussard Rd, Hwy 733. The roadway near the bridge is so bumpy as to throw you around the roadway. THAT STATE road is actually hazzardous and needs a right turn lane @ Johnston. Why can't state money be used to work on those roads? How in the heck does a road get priority in this parish?
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There will soon be a whole lot of shakin’ going on at Benny’s Sportshack Supplement Depot, a new concept by Opelousas native Benny Nele. Located at 2002 Johnston St., the supplement shop, smoothie bar and café, featuring hot off the press paninis and wraps, plans to open in late May.
Philip deMahy Sr., a once respected New Iberia ad exec, was sentenced May 2 to spend the next two years (he faced up to 100 years) in a state penitentiary after state and federal investigators found dozens of images depicting children engaged in lewd sexual acts on his personal computer.
This year’s Cool Town issue is all about people who are not native to South Louisiana but made a conscious decision to be here, to be among us, to participate in our culture and contribute to it.
A shelved ordinance transferring $200,000 from a northside drainage project to a south Lafayette development may not break any laws, but it stinks to high heaven.
An effort to restore a shuttered dancehall and document other vacant or razed honky-tonks could serve as a model for saving an endangered species of entertainment.
Lafayette’s gene pool has been host to a long line of eccentric characters who have blurred the lines between crazy, genius, disturbed and curiously entertaining.
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