Zachary Taylor Parkway realignment ‘unjustified’

• By JAMES MINTON
• Baker-Zachary bureau
• Published: Jul 20, 2009

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ST. FRANCISVILLE — State highway officials have decided that a new — and likely costly — direct route from the John James Audubon Bridge to La. 10 in West Feliciana Parish will not be needed in the next 10 years.

The Mississippi River bridge, connecting West Feliciana and Pointe Coupee parishes, is considered as the major hurdle for the Zachary Taylor Parkway, a proposed four-lane route consisting of La. 10 on the east bank and La. 1 on the west side of the river.

The parkway was envisioned as a four-lane highway connecting Interstate 49 in Alexandria and Interstate 59 near Poplarville, Miss., to stimulate economic development in an eight- parish area.

The bridge is about 72 percent complete, state highway officials told the Zachary Taylor Parkway Commission at a July 8 meeting.

The bridge approach on the east bank dead-ends at U.S. 61 south of St. Francisville, and a consulting firm’s study concludes that east-west traffic using the bridge will not be enough to justify the cost of building a new road from the end of the bridge to some point on La. 10 between St. Francisville and Jackson.

Sherry Dupre, a spokeswoman for the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development, said the department is accepting the recommendations outlined in the study by Urban Systems Inc. of New Orleans.

“From what the study showed, the traffic count would not justify a realignment of La. 10 at this time,” Dupre said, adding that the picture could change after the bridge is finished and DOTD reviews the resulting traffic patterns.

The report says the decision to move the bridge from St. Francisville to a point south of town added a 4.5-mile “dog leg” to the Zachary Taylor Parkway’s original alignment but notes the current widening of U.S. 61 between St. Francisville and the bridge will provide sufficient traffic capacity until at least 2020.

The report also says the recommended route has the fewest elevation changes, bridge crossings and environmental constraints of all the possible alignments.

“The main reason is money; any other route would cost a lot,” said J. Curtis Jelks of Norwood, chairman of the parkway commission, a state agency.

“We would like a shorter route, but St. Francisville would rather that it stay the way it is,” Jelks said.

Police Juror Randy Stevens, who represents much of the study area, noted that U.S. 61 will be four lanes by the time the bridge opens and “it would cost a lot of money to cut across.”

But Stevens and Jury President Billy Shoemake said drivers familiar with the area are likely to use other state and parish roads to move between the bridge and Jackson.