Relief Is Coming To Kaliste Saloom Road At E. Broussard – But When?

The long awaited widening of Kaliste Saloom Road at E. Broussard is coming.  But, according to City Parish President Joey Durel, it will be a couple of years before you see some relief in the traffic.

Durel talked about the project as he joined "Mornings with Ken and Bernie" during his "Lafayette Live" segment.

Durel said that the project has been actually happening for a little while, but you really haven't seen a lot of activity.  Durel says that's because of the outfall, or the drainage pipes that run water from the road to the bayou were being put in.  Durel added,

The outfall you didn’t see a lot of...because it ran perpendicular to the road, so you kind of saw some of the beginning of the project and then it went away.

The next step, according to Durel, is utility relocation.  Durel said that there is a timetable around this second step,

That’s probably going to be a year and a half of work, maybe two I think, but we’re probably two years away from seeing actual road construction.

Once the construction gets underway, there will be some definite changes, particularly in the intersection of Kaliste Saloom and E. Broussard.  Durel said,

It’s going to move over...across the coulee much earlier, and you’re going to have a whole new intersection and it will line up with Que Road and it will be a wonderful roundabout right there and we all know how well roundabouts move traffic.

Durel mentioned that the road changed over to city control and away from the state when the Ambassador extension happened.  That move has saved a lot of time, according to Durel, because,

...had we waited for the state, they had projected, not planned, that Kaliste Saloom could be widened in the year 2028, so if we wait for the state to take care of us, we are in big trouble.