12-19-98

New B.R. Bypass Plan Cited

From the Advocate - Thursday, December 17, 1998:

"$300 Million plan includes bridge near Plaquemine."

            Remember the old T.V. Quiz Show the "$64,000.00 Question"?  To remember that show one would have to be over 50 years of age.  In those seven words lies the $64,000.00 question.   One four letter word - NEAR.  Exactly what does the term "near Plaquemine" mean?  Does the term "near" mean North or South of Plaquemine?  One suggested bridge plan is North of Plaquemine and the other suggested bridge crossing is a LU LU.  It would go down close to White Castle, South of Plaquemine, cross the proposed new bridge, go back North to intersect with the new five lane Highway 30 near the Baton Rouge-Iberville line.

            To cross the Mississippi River at that point, the most sensible thing to do with the new bridge once you cross the river would be to go South, not North.  But that is the way the Department of Highways has always built highways.  From the proposed South Plaquemine crossing from the new South bridge, the intersection of Highway 73 (Jefferson Highway) and Highway 30 are as close to the new bridge (South) as the suggestion made by Mr. Diez.

Continuing from the article:

            Mayor Tom Ed McHugh isn't ready to support the proposal just yet.  "It's too important to shoot from the hip on" McHugh said Wednesday, adding the Capital Region Planning Commission needs to study the issue.

            McHugh said the Diez plan would help ease I-10 traffic going through Baton Rouge to New Orleans, but it would not help with traffic that goes through the city on the way to Florida.

            It reads as if someone has fed Mr. McHugh some brain food since the last Representative Diez's solution as to a Baton Rouge Bypass.  In my estimation, at least 75 % of the trucks going through Baton Rouge are going I-12, not I-10.  There are more local trucks traveling from Baton Rouge to New Orleans and visa versa.  A Plaquemine Bypass will not affect these one way or another.

One last thing from the article:

            Efforts to reach U.S. Representative Richard Baker, Republican, Baton Rouge, for comment were unsuccessful.

            I have it from what I consider a reasonable authority that Richard Baker was at the Gonzales Christmas Parade Sunday, December 14, 1998.  As one that travels the I-10 and I-12 corridor almost daily, observing the work being done on I-12, it appears that the eastbound section of I-12 may be completed in a couple of months.

            Do you not suggest that the future planners should wait and see what happens when all of I-12 is completed before building some more bottlenecks - like was built when I-10 and I-12 were built originally.

                                                                            O. W. Stevens