While worrying about getting to class on time and finding a good parking space, students found one more thing to stress out about Monday morning – road construction.
“The traffic was horrible. I was 20 minutes late for my first class at 12:30,” said Faryal Nasir, a criminology senior. “I even left early to find parking. But because of construction on West Parker, I was held up in traffic which took me longer to find a parking space.”
Even though Monday was the first day of school, road construction outside the south gates of campus started July 14. Funded by the one-cent sales tax, East Baton Rouge Parish’s Street and Road Rehabilitation Program awarded Barber Brothers Contracting Company, Inc. a $582,000 contract to reconstruct May Street, West Parker Street, East Boyd Drive, Amherst Avenue and Jennifer Jean Drive. Barber Brothers’ contract also includes the side streets between Amherst Avenue and West Parker Street.
To ease traffic, all roads under construction will remain open for students to use, said Ronald Falgout, Barber Brothers construction manager.
Because most of these streets are not high traffic streets, Falgout said traffic should only be a problem for residents in the area.
To avoid traffic on side streets, students should stay on the main streets of Highland Road, Burbank Drive and Nicholson Drive.
Traffic was very heavy on Highland Road and West Parker on Monday, from noon to 5 p.m., said Burt Stamant, a Barber Brothers foreman who oversees the soil cement crew. Although traffic still flooded West Parker Street on Tuesday, Stamant said the traffic was getting better.
“It’s a no-win situation,” Stamant said. “Bear with us. The more traffic we have to deal with, the less production we do.”
Driving to campus Tuesday at 8 a.m., Sadie Broussard, a senior in English literature, said the roads were really messy and bumpy.
“I don’t want to drive down West Parker or East Boyd anymore,” Broussard said. “I’ll have to leave earlier from now on and try to take an alternate route through Burbank.”
Overseeing the asphalt crew, Barber Brothers Superintendent Gerald Sullivan said the traffic Tuesday morning was more horrendous than Monday, especially on West Parker near Highland. Traffic on May Street was not as bad even though only one lane remained open.
While sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic during the first week of school, students questioned why construction started two weeks before school started.
“What I want to know is why they didn’t start rebuilding the roads earlier this summer so it would be done by now,” Broussard said.
Falgout said Barber Brothers started plans for reconstruction July 14, but to prevent cutting any water, gas or phone lines with road machines, Barber Brothers had to wait for utilities to be relocated.
During this week’s road construction, Barber Brothers will close the left lane on East Boyd Drive going toward Nicholson Street until Friday to replace bad concrete.
Even though Barber Brothers will be finishing the new layers of asphalt on most roads by next Friday, Falgout said the reconstruction project will last another two or three weeks. Barber Brothers will label traffic and bicycle lanes, arrow symbols and railroad crossings. Workers also will remove and replace any damaged curbs and gutters on roads during shoulder construction.
The road’s condition before reconstruction ranked from fair to poor with potholes scarring each road, Falgout said.
“When the project is complete in less than a month from now, the roads will be much smoother,” Falgout said. “If we do our job right, they should look very nice.”