Louisiana Interstate Medians Getting Cable Barriers

Louisiana’s Department of Transportation and Development plans to add nearly 350 miles of cable median barriers along interstates across the state.

That will cover virtually every area needing the protection to keep vehicles from crossing into oncoming traffic, Secretary Sherri LeBas told The Advocate.

“We will continue to see what we are seeing now, which is less errant vehicles or trailers crossing the median,” LeBas said.

The department has said 81 miles of barriers in south Louisiana, mainly on Interstate 10, have helped cut highway deaths 32 percent since 2007.

The first went up in 2008 on Interstate 12 in St. Tammany Parish.

The work is expected to cost $46 million, mostly from federal funds, and to take three years.

New cable barriers are planned on interstates 10, 12, 20 and 55. Interstates 49 and 59 also will be checked, highway safety administrator Dan Magri said.

The state is still deciding where to put some of the barriers, which cost $125,000 to $150,000 per mile.

“It will be where we do not have cable currently and where we do not have a wide median or a tree line,” Magri said.

Areas on the three-year list include 185 miles of barrier along Interstate 20. Work is to start by late summer or early fall on a $4.6 million, 34-mile project in Bossier and Webster parishes, DOTD spokeswoman Lauren Lee said.

Others include 44 miles along I-10 in Jefferson Davis and Calcasieu parishes in southwest Louisiana, 27 miles along I-10 in West Baton Rouge and Iberville parishes, 76 miles along I-12 in Livingston Parish and on I-55, and 8 miles along I-10 in New Orleans East.

LeBas said state officials are studying how to deal with gaps needed for emergency vehicles to turn around.