South Monroe residents are scratching their heads this week as they learn about plans to reroute traffic on Highway 165 in Monroe that apparently have been in the works for over a year but are still a while away.
Natalie Sistrunk, District Traffic Operations Engineer for the Department of Transportation and Development, told the Free Press Friday that the DOTD conducted a safety study a year ago and identified several areas across the state that had safety issues.
She said the strip of Highway 165 from Winnsboro Road (Highway 15) to Highway 80 (DeSiard Street) had many rear-end and left-turn crashes reported in the study.
“Safety is the goal,” said Sistrunk, who noted that the 165 Highway corridor is included in the rerouting plans is designed to save lives.
Sistrunk said at this point that the project is in the conceptualization phase, in which drawing concepts are reviewed.
When the concepts are complete, Sistrunk says public hearings will be conducted to get community input.
The project has been approved initially for $11.7 million, Sistrunk says.
District F Police Juror Lonnie Hudson says he began receiving calls on Thursday after a video on social media accused him and fellow Black police juror Rev. Micheal Thompson of not informing the public of the planned changes.
Hudson said the project is sponsored by the Police Jury but is being done by the state. He said he heard of the plans a few months ago but needed more details or documentation to comment.
Hudson said he only received conceptual sketches recently.
Rev. Thompson also said he was only recently shown concept drawings of the planned changes without any detailed specifications.
Hudson said he was disappointed the local activist Marie Brown made disparaging remarks about black police jurors before she received all of the facts.
In general, the plans are to reroute traffic that typically crosses highway 165 on a new route that uses bypasses rather than crossing the highway.
State Senator Katrina Jackson said Friday that “a local DOTD representative jumped the gun and presented a plan to the mayor and, after review, he requested they go to the Police Jurors to present. The local DOTD representative did this without discussing these plans with Senator Jackson, nor Representative Fisher, and Pat Moore. Therefore, we have just been informed of these plans via a phone call with the secretary of the DOTD. We have informed him that we do not agree with their findings.”
Senator Jackson said the legislative delegation “will not allow these funds to be lost.”
She said, “These funds are allocated to address safety issues in our community. We will be meeting with the public to look at sidewalks, safety turning lanes, lighting and anything else to ensure the safety of our communities.”
Normally, a vehicle might travel East on Renwick, pass Carroll High School stop at the highway, then cross the highway and continue on Renwick to Powell Ave will now take another route. When the same car reaches the Martin Luther King Bypass, it can turn either right or left, travel toward the railroad track on each end, and go around the bridges to get to the other side.
Similar reroutings would occur on Louberta Street, Ruffin Street, and other proposed crossings.
Because of increased traffic, the proposed bypasses will have ten feet of sidewalks and bicycle paths.
Sistrunk stated that most of the stop lights now being used on Highway 165 would be discontinued, but a few would have traffic buttons to stop traffic for pedestrians.
The plans would not affect the newly painted Renwick Pedestrian crosswalk.
Take a peek at the proposed routes. These have not been approved but are concept drawings
