Changes are coming to a Hub City roadway known for its traffic. The Lafayette Consolidated Government says the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development will help reconfigure a portion of Bertrand Drive.  Director of Public Works, Kevin Blanchard explains the “Bertrand Streetscape Project” will start near Joey’s Grocery on Bertrand Drive and continue towards Johnston Street.

Blanchard adds that the plan is to cut the 4-lanes down to two or three, reduce the speed limit by ten miles per hour and add sidewalks with landscaping.  Area business owners are eager to see the project happen. “This use to be the main access, then North College kind of cut us off,” says Deano’s owner Tim Metcalf.

Blanchard says LCG has set aside money to cover its 20% match for the project. The program guidelines reads that projects under the Transportation Alternative Program (TAP) are scheduled for letting on a first come, first serve basis.  Once the budgeted funds are exhausted for that year, then projects will be moved to the next fiscal year.

“We’re very excited because it’s going to generate a lot of pedestrian traffic. We got Cajunfield on this end and the horse farm on the other.  It’s the perfect place for it.  Slow the traffic down too. We have parking on both sides of the road and it gets a little dicey sometimes with cars doing 45 to 50 mph,” adds Metcalf.

DOTD says that 47 project applications were received for the 2014-2016 TAP program. “For any events near the university or Mardi Gras, people are walking up and down the street all the time. It’s a lot of traffic.  Even for us, we try and cross the street to go to like Deano’s and we can’t really make it,” explains Event Rental, Event Specialist Collin Riggs.

The DOTD Transportation Alternative Program is a Federally funded program administered through DOTD. The goal is to work toward building a more balanced transportation system that includes pedestrians and bicyclists as well as the motoring public, according to DOTD.