Terrebonne’s progress paved

Toll lane to close Thursday

January 28, 2015

HEART OVER HYPE

January 29, 2015

New buildings to house government operations like an emergency operations center, animal shelter and child detention – all in a newly developed hub on the La. Highway 311 corridor – are moving from concept to construction as Terrebonne Parish moves through the second decade of the 21st century.

Flood protection projects that keep people and property safer – much of it done in partnership with the Terrebonne Levee and Conservation District – are ongoing, and have generated a flurry of activity, much of it in places where people don’t see the work being done. A skateboard park, sports park and several downtown improvements are also cited as parish undertakings that serve to make people happier and healthier.

Asked where Terrebonne is making the most marked progress in 2015, Parish President Michel Claudet was hard-pressed to identify a single classification.

“I believe the most progress has been made by the parish in the areas of flood protection, drainage, fresh water introduction, infrastructure and quality of life,” he said.

Among those falling in the category of infrastructure are improvements and additions to the system of roads that provide vital links between neighborhoods and towns, upon whose backs their vehicles travel every day.

A growing parish, planners maintain, needs a growing road system, and while some improvements and additions are built and maintained by the state, the parish itself plays a major role in the conceptualizing and actualizing of road projects, some small and some extensive. The improvements on existing roads, officials acknowledge, can sometimes cause motorists inconvenience and delay. But they express hope that the public at large will realize it’s all for a good cause.

Some of the ongoing and planned future changes to the parish road system were conceptualized more than a decade ago by the late Bob Jones, who died in 2004. Others are more recent. All are seen as vital by officials.

“I would be hard-pressed to pick just one,” Claudet said, when asked which of the road projects is the most important. “It depends on where you live.”

Jeanne Bray, Terrebonne’s capital projects administrator, said that among the more visible work underway is the widening of Holly wood Road from Martin Luther King Boulevard to La. Highway 311; relocation of utility poles has already been completed.

“Now we are in the contract to do other relocations such as sewer and water,” Bray said.

The project, which will turn two lanes into four, has a cost estimate of $11.5 million. Property acquisitions cost about $5 million. Traffic flow to the MLK retail corridor coupled with routine commuting and other factors have made for major congestion at various times of day prior to construction. Bray said there are hopes that the project could be completed by year’s end, although factors such as weather could result in delays.

Among the challenges crews are working with is directional drilling of 3,000 feet of a 20-inch sewer main.

A smaller related job is the widening of Hollywood from La. Highway 311 to Valhi Boulevard. An extra lane is being added to each side, at a cost of about $1 million.

“One of the lanes has already been poured,” Bray said.

Also in the works – but in the earlier planning stages – is the extension of Hollywood beyond Valhi, which is its current terminus. The road will eventually be extended to meet La. Highway 182, allowing motorists to then turn back into Houma at Barrow Street or travel on to Gibson.

Road projects that are less visible to motorists are underway, including the Phase III improvement and expansion of West Side Boulevard. A stretch of the road from Martin Luther King Boulevard to La. Highway 311 is getting raised, to

stave off effects of future sinking. A traffic light is in the future of West Side and MLK, according to plans being coordinated with the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development.

The project links to the recent expansion of West Side from Main Street to MLK.

Bray said an extension of Bayou Gardens Boulveard from Coteau Road to Bayou Blue Road is having an embankment laid. In the case of that project as well as the final West Side extension, many months will have to pass while the initial embankment settles.

As for another proposed artery, which will extend Thompson Road from Grand Caillou Road – just south of Woodlawn Ranch Road – to La. Highway 56 will take over a year just for the initial settling.

With those projects, Bray said, the time involved should not inconvenience motorists, since they are new roads rather than existing, traveled thoroughfares.

For the projects that do cause delays, Bray appealed to understanding on the part of motorists.

“We ask that people be patient,” she said, “because the end product is something they are going to be very happy with.”

‘We ask that people be patient because the end product is something they are going to be very happy with.’