Baton Rouge was listed as having the fifth-worst roads in the nation for a major city. The Road Information Program, a national transportation research group, released a report in March that found 23 percent of the nation’s major urban centers’ roads have pavements in depleted conditions. The report said these urban roads cost the average urban motorist an annual $413 in additional vehicle operating costs because of problems ranging from an increase in fuel consumption to extra maintenance improvements. The report was broken down into two categories: one including urban areas with a population of more than 500,000 and the second category listed urban areas with a population ranging from 250,000 to 500,000. Baton Rouge fell in the second category as the fifth-worst urban center in the nation, with 39 percent of its roads in poor condition. The report said motorists in and around Baton Rouge annually pay $564 in extra vehicle operating costs. Rod Banks, program manager for the Baton Rouge Department of Public Works, said local roads in really bad condition are all around Baton Rouge, including Plank Road and Burbank Drive just east of Gardere Lane. “The issues we have with our roads [from] problems ranging from holes, but not potholes, to some areas that have alligator cracks, which indicate the face and surface of the road itself are not strong enough to support the loads that are on them,” Banks said. Banks said the Sales Tax and Street and Road Rehabilitation Program is a road project running since 1990 with the goal of restoring the surface of Baton Rouge’s roads to a “like new” condition. The program is funded through a half-cent sales tax that was approved in 1990 before the program began. Banks said the environment is the primary reason for the poor condition of the city’s roads. He said Baton Rouge is in a fluvial deposit with most of the soils consisting of silt and silty clays, and these soils make it difficult to maintain the roads and their conditions. He said the winters of 1989 and 1990 were very wet winters, and the roads of Baton Rouge badly deteriorated. “It was these conditions that caused the administration to propose this half-cent sales tax to fix the roads,” he said. Banks said not only do environmental factors damage the roads, but people are also hurting the roads with other local projects. “The sewer project, removing wastewater and putting in and taking out pipes, can damage the roads if we are not careful,” Banks said. “We don’t want to fix a road and have the sewer project come along and tear it up.” He said the Green Light Program took a lot of the funding from the Sales Tax and Street and Rehabilitation Program, which means the program probably will not be able to maintain the roads as well. University students have mixed feelings toward traffic conditions in Baton Rouge. “Being from New Orleans, the city has no vast projects to fix the roads, but here in Baton Rouge, road workers have projects in place to get things done such as repaving all of Burbank Drive,” said Wade Trosclair, history freshman. Trosclair said the roads in Baton Rouge are a lot better compared to ones in New Orleans, although they are not all perfect. Jessica Holden, mass communication freshman, said the roads in Baton Rouge are definitely worse compared to her hometown of Sand Springs, Okla. “You definitely get more damage driving your car in both Baton Rouge and Louisiana as a whole than in Oklahoma,” Holden said. Banks said roads are always behind the population and that has been the problem in Baton Rouge for the past 30 to 40 years. “Until Baton Rouge and our suburbs stop growing, or we stop driving cars, the roads are going to be behind and get even worse,” Banks said.
—-Contact Louis Pelletteri III at [email protected]