LA Highways

[SBCmetroguy]

Originally Posted by blakeb99

the roads in LA are terrible. we have a bridge in our city that has been in construction for over 5 years now. it's like they work at the pace of a turtle...just get the damn thing done! you know they got people begging for jobs and the gov't sucking up our tax dollars so why not get all the bump, crappy ass roads fixed?

What city/bridge is that?

[Torrey]

Originally Posted by DAVID_S

Can someone please explain what the problem is with the highways in Louisiana. Twice a year, we travel through Louisiana, stopping on the way to see friends in Baton Rouge, and on the way back in the Shreveport area. I have never seen interstate highways in such a constant state of disrepair/construction. Driving down I-10 it feels like our vehicle is getting destroyed. We even see the same road construction signs up in the same place, year after year. Don't mean to criticize LA, just wondering what is going on???

More than half the people born and raised in Loser-ana only finished the 8th grade. Any questions? No kidding, I heard it on the radio over there - I work in Louisiana, and live in Texas. Everytime I cross the border, I can tell I am in La. just by the feel of the road. Aweful.

[SBCmetroguy]

Originally Posted by Torrey

More than half the people born and raised in Loser-ana only finished the 8th grade. Any questions? No kidding, I heard it on the radio over there - I work in Louisiana, and live in Texas. Everytime I cross the border, I can tell I am in La. just by the feel of the road. Aweful.

That's insanely untrue, and you're only compounding the problem by allowing such a lie to live on. I suppose you believe everything you hear on the radio, if in fact you did hear that on the radio to begin with.

Just out of curiosity though, what smart person would drive across a state line on a daily basis to work for someone who only finished the eighth grade? Perhaps you're just playing Russian Roulette with your career and hoping that the person you work for is in that "upper" fifty percent.

FYI, Tex, the word is "awful," not "aweful." How about that Texas education!?

[Kurt]

I have met many folks in Louisiana and can attest that they must be pretty smart 8th graders If the comment was made on the radio it might have been made in jest--so you might need more of a sense of humor. Anyways, it is just not true. Of course, it is not uncommon for Texans to think that everyone else is a bit inferior. I have lots of friends in Oklahoma who tell me that. So lighten up a bit, Torrey.

Originally Posted by Torrey

More than half the people born and raised in Loser-ana only finished the 8th grade. Any questions? No kidding, I heard it on the radio over there - I work in Louisiana, and live in Texas. Everytime I cross the border, I can tell I am in La. just by the feel of the road. Aweful.

[jed24]

I've been in shreveport for 6 mos. These are the absolute worst roads in a city that I have ever experienced. The people I talk to here say that you should have seen them 20 years ago. Well thats a bunch of junk. I pay about 400 a month in state income tax and can't get a fishing license. Where does this money go?? What ever happened to city maintenance?? Even small towns in Texas take care of their roads. WTF?

[MetroBTR]

My only major complaint about Baton Rouge roads is that some of them aren't large enough to handle the current population. My ride to work is smooth and comfortable, the only annoyance is traffic. Most of the roads that need major work are in older parts of town...Government Between Evergreen Drive and 12th Street needs to be ripped up, and Airline North of Florida (but that would probably cause a bigger mess than its worth).

I vote New Orleans for worst roads in the state, but to be fair, their soil has poltergeists that constantly shifts it up and down and all around, so it's pretty impossible to keep a road smooth for more than a couple of years unless you lay down many, many inches of asphalt (which translates to mega-bucks). Whenever they redo I-10 in New Orleans East, I think they should just elevate the whole thing, because that soil out there is way to unpredictable for my comfort.

The state has been moving in the right direction. The ride b/w Baton Rouge and New Orleans is now pleasantly smooth. They are expanding portions of I-10 and I-12 in the Baton Rouge area. Overall, I really do believe that Baton Rouge has the best ride-quality (not taking traffic into account) of all the cities in the state. Of course, these are also the roads Bobby Jindal has to travel on every day...

My vote for worst major road goes to University Avenue in Lafayette...the bumps made my satellite radio fall off the dashboard.

[Innotech]

the constantly shifting ground definitely does have alot to do with it. If you take a placel ike colorado for example, they can build a solid road into bedrock that isnt going to move. Put in expansion joints for heating/cooling and that rioad is set for many years. Here we cannot make that sort of road because it will sink and crack apart in a couple years. It costs a lot of money to maintain a road if its constantly breaking down, especially if its overusedl ike so many of our roads are.

[nolatree]

Like people have said, the ground in LA is soft and shifts lot (especially south louisiana). So roads are not going to hold up like they do in a northern state.

[Chris19]

I think that some of road issues are with the ground and with heavy moisture. In South Dakota, the roads buckle a lot with the freeze/thaw in the winter and may occasionally get a beating when it occasionally gets to 100-110 degrees in the summer. The natural conditions play a part and the other is the management of roads.

US 65 north of Tallulah had some of the roughest road I have driven on in my entire trip along with some stretches of I-20 near Shreveport. There are definitely states who have better roads such as Kansas, Wyoming, NY State, Nebraska, etc. but some areas have just as shoddy if not worse roads such as Pennsylvania, Michigan, Missouri (especially I-70), and parts of Minnesota (Minneapolis-St.Paul).

I-12 and I-55 (north of Hammond) along with parts of I-20 were decent.