The two latest concepts for the Interstate 49 Lafayette Connector, one with roundabouts replacing traffic signals at three intersections and both with sound barriers and accommodations for the historically-recognized Freetown-Port Rico neighborhood, were unveiled Tuesday at open house events.
The I-49 Lafayette Connector is a proposed 5.5-mile section of interstate that would run through Lafayette from Lafayette Regional Airport to the current terminus of I-49 at Interstate 10. As proposed, it will include more than 3 miles of elevated roadway from around Castille Avenue to around Pinhook Road, with three travel lanes in each direction.
Plans for the Connector have started and stopped several times over the decades. In 1987, the project received congressional authorization. In 2003, the Federal Highway Administration issued a Record of Decision on a design that included large single-point interchanges at Johnston Street and at 2nd and 3rd streets near downtown.
The project was shelved for several years. When it was restarted about nine years ago, officials recognized from public feedback that the previous plans were no longer what the community desired and restarted community input and design.
In 2017, an executive committee recommended two alternatives that removed the three large interchanges near downtown, which the two alternatives unveiled Tuesday also do.
One of the concepts, called C-5, utilizes traffic signals at those interchanges. The second, C-6, uses roundabouts.
Louisiana Department of Transportation officials prefer the proposal with roundabouts in part because they lower the severity of crashes and require fewer property displacements and acquisitions, according to a presentation at the open house.
Ultimately, officials with the Federal Highway Administration will decide which concept to endorse.
Nine locations where the interstate is expected to have adverse noise effects were studied, Louis Costa with Lafayette Connector Partners, said. Only three locations met state policy standards: one at Mudd Avenue, one at Sterling Grove by the railroad tracks just past Simcoe Street and one at Freetown-Port Rico, north of Taft and Pinhook Road.
The Connector and Evangeline Thruway were redesigned to reduce the impact on Freetown-Port Rico, Costa said, but there still will be visual impact.
North Lafayette resident Nureaka Ross, founder of Protect Our Pedestrians, has concerns about some aspects of the plans, but praised the fact that the latest designs include a pedestrian crossing under the elevated interstate just north of Castille Avenue, where she said several pedestrians have been killed crossing Evangeline Thruway.
"It's going to be interesting," Parish Councilman A.B. Rubin said after viewing the project plans.
Rubin said he's concerned about businesses and families that will be affected, even displaced, by the massive project. If access to local businesses is cut off, he said, "Will they survive? I don't want nobody starved out."
What's next?
- Winter 2024, publish Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement.
- Early 2025, conduct public hearing on DEIS.
- Late 2025, publish Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement and issue Record of Decision.
