Vine Street Faces Slow Progress
BOBBY ARDOIN
St. Landry Now.com Editor
Motorists moving down Vine Street in Opelousas can expect to wait at least several more years for the highly-traveled roadway through the heart of the city to undergo major improvements, state transportation officials revealed on Tuesday night.
The highly-anticipated completion of the project has already cost at least $17 million for state engineering and other studies.
However much more is anticipated to be spent by the state before the two-lane street is scheduled for begin the construction phase perhaps by 2030, according to Department of Transportation representatives who spoke at a Town Hall meeting held at the Yambilee Building.
Vine Street project manager Joe Brown, tackling Vine Street will require a detailed effort that is tangled in engineering, design and impact studies before construction actually begins..
Brown said DOTD officials are still attempting to determine final cost estimates for Vine Street that will probably need state and federal grant funding.
There is also the need to perform environmental impact studies and well as utility and sewerage studies, Brown added.
Brown anticipates that the plan development and environmental impact could be completed by 2028.
Until then vehicles will have to acknowledge the 30-mile per-hour speed limit down Vine Street and prepare to dodge the potholes and water leaks.
Repairing Vine Street, Brown said, remains a prominent project in the minds of state officials.
“There has been a lot of interest in this project. We are here with your state representatives to make sure that the Vine Street project gets across the finish line,” Brown said.
Over the past three years the Opelousas Downtown Development District has noted that Vine Street is a major highway artery whose condition is essential to improving citywide commerce.
Brown said Vine Street also slices through portions of an historic district, which presents another issue for design and engineering.
Also complicating the project are how and where to relocate water and gas lines, Brown added.
Vine Street is also part of a federal highway (U.S. 190), so since federal money will probably be needed for completion, there will be more adherence needed due to federal requirements for determining the degree of community impact, Brown said.
