• By DEBRA LEMOINE
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Oct 22, 2009

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HAMMOND — Motorists are now able to use the reconfigured intersection of Old Baton Rouge Highway and Morrison Boulevard.

The original road configuration allowed for two major intersections within a few feet of each other, which caused traffic to back up along South Morrison Boulevard.

“The whole purpose of this project is because of the traffic congestion,” Mayor Mayson Foster said.

Five years ago, the city began looking for a new way for motorists using Old Baton Rouge Highway to access South Morrison Boulevard, which is also U.S. 51. This intersection is within a few feet of the intersection of Morrison and West Thomas Street, which is also U.S. 190.

Originally, the city had asked the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development to redirect traffic down Celia Avenue to connect to West Thomas Street, Foster said.

The agency had connecting Corbin Road to Old Baton Rouge Highway, which is also La. 1040, as part of its long-range transportation plans, so that plan was chosen, Foster said.

The city spent a year and $600,000 buying nine parcels of land and moving two houses to clear the path between Corbin Avenue and Old Baton Rouge Highway, Foster said. DOTD spent $1.5 million on the roadwork that began in July, said Amber Hebert, spokeswoman for DOTD.

Corbin Road, which the City Council has proposed to rename Chauvin Drive, has been open to traffic since Oct. 6, Hebert said. Last week, DOTD installed barriers to prevent left turns from Old Baton Rouge Highway onto Morrison.

The traffic light at Old Baton Rouge Highway and Morrison also has come down, she said.

The next step in the project is to prevent left turns from Guidry Drive onto Morrison, Foster said. Guidry Drive is the side road that connects to the Albertsons shopping center parking lot.

According to Hebert, other DOTD road projects planned for Tangipahoa Parish include:

• replacing the bridges on Little Italy Road and JW Davis Drive in Hammond at a cost of $1.5 million. The project is under way.
• creating three roundabouts to prevent left turns into the truck stops along Southwest Railroad Avenue south of Interstate 12. The project is estimated to cost $4.6 million and DOTD will seek bids in 2011 or 2012.
• resurfacing sections of Interstate 55. The $17.5 million project to resurface 7.5 miles of I-55 from Amite to Fluker will begin in November. The agency will spend another $15 million to $20 million resurfacing another five miles of I-55 from Kentwood to the state line. DOTD will seek bids for this project in February.