LAFAYETTE, La. — After years of construction, additional changes could be on the horizon for the North University Avenue corridor as local leaders respond to community concerns about traffic flow and business access.
For Chamroeun Chhorn, the owner of Express Donuts, the median along North University has become a barrier between his business and customers. “After they started to block in the middle, business was very bad," said Chhorn.
Chhorn’s experience is shared by other residents and business owners frustrated with limited left-turn access and narrow lanes as part of the $10-million state- and federally-funded project. However, Lafayette Consolidated Government (LCG) officials say modifications cannot be made until the current work is complete.
“We're going to look at possible solutions to where we can come in after this construction is complete and have an LCG project — a stand-alone project — to address those issues,” said Martin Poirrier, director of LCG’s Capital Improvements Department. “As far as the modifications coming in after the project is done, LCG would fund those construction modifications.”
Engineers are currently in the planning process for a follow-up project, with solutions expected to be presented to the Mayor-President in the next month or so. “First of all, we want to look at the engineering aspect of it, see what we can do, and then from that, we'll develop a budget to construct the engineering solutions that are needed,” Poirrier said.
LCG is asking for patience as engineers evaluate feedback and prepare next steps. “I'm happy that they have helped develop the neighborhood, but they should help with all the businesses here too,” Chhorn said.
Drivers can expect a return to regular traffic patterns by June or July as the long-running corridor project nears completion. Any proposed changes addressing community and business concerns will come after that phase wraps up.
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