Lafayette Pay Attention: Newest I-10 Location of Buc-ee’s Opens Today

(KMDL-FM) Attention residents of Lafayette and St Martin Parish, something is happening along I-10 today that you need to watch closely. That something is the official grand opening of the Harrison County, Mississippi Buc-ee's Travel Center.

The new Buc-ee's is technically the closest Buc-ee's to Louisiana. And it will remain that way until either the proposed Buc-ee's in Ruston on I-20 or the location slated for Lafayette along I-10 opens in the next year or so.

Where Will Buc-ee's Be Located in Louisiana?

The reason why we are encouraging residents of Lafayette and St Martin Parishes to pay close attention to a travel center opening a couple of hundred miles to the east is pretty simple. You are about to see your future. And if I had to drive I-10 near Louisiana Avenue where the Lafayette Buc-ee's is being built, I would be a little, no, a lot apprehensive.

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I am all for economic development, and having a Buc-ee's in your town is a great feather in the cap of your tax base. However, with tourist destinations come tourists, and that will mean a huge influx of traffic on the stretch of I-10 between Lafayette and Breaux Bridge.

And if you ask any motorist who drives that stretch of I-10 right now, they'll frustratedly tell you, "We have enough traffic already".  Now, I am basing my irrational fear on what I have seen unfold at the Robertsdale, Alabama, location of Buc-ee's along I-10. It's a traffic cluster...you pick a word.

Traffic engineers and the Mississippi Department of Transportation figuratively moved Heaven and literally moved Earth to hopefully avoid the traffic issues that the Alabama location of Buc-ee's still has years after the new beaver smell has faded away.

Just How Many People Are Expected to Visit Buc-ee's Every Year?

It has been reported that the new Buc-ee's in Mississippi will see more visitors than Yellowstone National Park. If you want the numbers, that's about 5 million people every year. You don't think an influx of that many extra cars won't make a difference in your I-10 travel times, should similar traffic occur at the Lafayette location?

We have reporters on the scene in Harrison County, Mississippi, this morning, and we'll see how day one goes. We expect it to be crowded and stay crowded along Exit 22 just east of the Louisiana line for a month or so. Then we'll start to get a glimpse of what our future with the "beaver in the backyard" will look like.

I do hope we like what we see. I know we'll love what we taste because Buc-ee's does make some good food.