Cars bounced roughly Wednesday as students drove to and from campus on a grainy, unlevel Nicholson Drive. Student commuters may face construction delays for the next few weeks while workers with the state Department of Transportation and Development make repairs to Nicholson Drive.
The repairs stretch from downtown to the west stadium parking lot next to Tiger Stadium, into one of the main entrances to campus.
DOTD spokeswoman Lauren Lee said the road was supposed to be finished before school started, but “weather and other unforeseen circumstances” delayed the work.
Lee said the work should be completed Sept. 15 before the first LSU home football game against Mississippi State.
“That’s a pretty hard date,” Lee said, indicating the construction will be finished on time.
Work is being done outside peak traffic periods — weekdays from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. and on weekends from 8 p.m. Friday to 5 a.m. Monday. Workers will close off lanes to make the repairs while work is being done.
Even when the lanes are open, commuters are encountering problems making it through. Workers are milling and overlaying the road, meaning they are stripping and replacing the asphalt. The road is still unfinished, causing traffic delays as students slow down to counteract the jolts on the road.
The problems were compounded Wednesday morning when the right southbound lane was closed in front of Nicholson Apartments while workers repaired a water main. The closure affected about 200 feet of the road.
“I haven’t heard any major complaints,” said Gary Graham, director of the Office of Parking, Traffic and Transportation.
Graham said the water main repairs caused relatively minor problems because most traffic onto campus comes northbound. He said his office has been in contact with DOTD, and he hopes the Sept. 15 completion date will prove correct.
Students leaving campus Wednesday afternoon said the work has been an inconvenience to their commutes.
Kristina Linch, agricultural business senior, said she was rear-ended as drivers slowed down for the construction.
“Last night, I couldn’t leave my apartment,” said Dan Eshleman, accounting graduate student. “I didn’t really have to go to the store, but still, it was a problem.”
Other students took the work in stride.
“I mean, it slowed me down a little bit, but not enough to be a big problem,” said Jarrod Honeycutt, psychology senior.
Honeycutt said he makes sure to leave early so traffic delays don’t make him late.
Work was recently finished on the intersection of South Acadian Thruway and Perkins Road, where Acadian becomes Stanford Avenue — the intersection was re-paved, and six turning lanes were added.  Mayor-President Kip Holden will participate in a ribbon-cutting ceremony on that project today, which is a part of his office’s “Green Light Plan.”
“With students returning to fall classes at LSU this week, we are seeing a dramatic difference in how smoothly traffic is flowing through this area that was very congested.” Holden said in a news release Tuesday. “This is a significant improvement for commuters as well as the neighborhoods and businesses near this intersection.”
The intersection’s makeover is the 12th completed project in the Green Light Plan, which is aimed at easing congestion at strategic locations throughout East Baton Rouge Parish.
Ongoing construction on Brightside Drive, which the Green Light Plan website says is 85       percent complete, will make the road three lanes and will add sidewalks and bike paths. The project is behind schedule, according to the same website.
The Green Light Plan also includes additional work on the Nicholson-Brightside intersection. That project is currently still in the design phase.
Completed work as part of the plan includes an expansion of Burbank Drive, finished in late April. That project was expressly designed to ease traffic flow onto campus.
 
 
 
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Contact Matthew Albright at [email protected]