I-49 Lafayette Connector Project offers city control over Evangeline Thruway

Rodricka Taylor
·3 min read

LAFAYETTE, La. (KLFY) — The Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development hosted an open house public meeting on Tuesday at the Lafayette Public Library main branch.

The meeting was held to share information and gather comments on the I-49 Lafayette Connector Project. Whether you attended in-person or virtually, here is what you need to know if you did not make it.

Deidra Druilhet, with the DOTD says the project is a lot more than what people think it to be.

“When you look at this project as a whole, a lot of people think it’s maybe a typical interchange project that we would do. But no, this is an entire corridor project. This is five and a half miles of actual corridor and so it’s a lot of ins and outs,” said Druilhet. “But when you think about it, what we have now is basically creating an area where we can allow motorists to travel freely through that particular corridor, enhancing the route along that particular corridor for a lot of motorists who use that particular roadway to go to various locations.”

The open house allowed the general public to find various information related to the project in terms of the project history and the project timeline. In addition, to new things to see such as the different design updates to the two alternative routes of the project. In addition, the meeting showed the results of the noise study that’s been done. Answers to questions regarding environmental traffic modeling and also gain answers if it relates to real estate. If they have a piece of property that maybe falls along the corridor they can see their property in relation to the project itself.

Bernadette Derouen, one of many attendees, shared with News 10 that coming to the meeting was huge for her in gaining more knowledge of what’s happening in the Lafayette area, but also how it impacts people who aren’t necessarily in the Lafayette. She looked into information about emergency preparation.

“For people who are coming from the east, from Morgan City, and so on, looking for a convenient way to get to safety. So I feel like that’s been accommodated very nicely and that there will be more options for people coming in, which will hopefully help the congestion area being a problem,” Derouen said.

In addition, she said she was concerned about the displacement of property, particularly schools, churches, temples, grocery stores, etc., that might be affected by this new movement.

“I’m learning to like roundabouts and I don’t think they are too many and they are too frequent that anybody is going to be frustrated. Roundabouts can really do a lot of good in terms of keeping traffic moving and perhaps even fewer accidents from happening,” Derouen said. “The overpass now has a better and clearer understanding of exactly how this overpass will be built, how it’s designed, and how it’s going to be very effective and that they have taken care of soundproof areas. Respecting the people around and the establishments around the new corridor coming through.”

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Lafayette Mayor-President Monique Blanco Boulet highlights the project is modifying Evangeline Thruway.

“Right now we handle interstate traffic going right through our city without interstate facilities and that’s where you see a lot of industrial traffic, a lot of accidents. It’s not good for pedestrians and that’s where we’re having a lot of issues with pedestrian accidents because we don’t have facilities made for people to cross. It’s a death trap and I would recommend people do not cross Evangeline Thruway on foot,” Boulet said. “What this does is it allows us to lift up that industrial interstate traffic and build some local roads on the thruway and with proper pedestrian access and safety mitigation.”

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