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Parish Traffic Updates Could Improve Regional Traffic Flow

Ascension Parish residents will vote this election on a new sales tax to fund road improvements throughout the parish.

The Lanes for Change upgrades would improve traffic flow throughout the capital region. 

Ascension Parish Public Information Officer Lester Kenyon said the half-cent sales tax would likely generate $200-million over the next 25 years.

He said the money will go to adding lanes and improving intersections on Airline Highway, adding roundabouts throughout the parish and repairing or replacing 10 bridges.

The regional corridor, a network of state highways that form one big perimeter around Ascension Parish, is also slated to be improved.

Parish Chief Engineer Ben Laurie said updating the intersections of the corridor will help traffic flow better throughout the area.

"We have a very significant inflow every morning from Livingston going down to the plants along the river and there's a lot of people in Ascension that both work in Baton Rouge and along that corridor as well. So there's just a wave of traffic every morning and this begins to address that," said Laurie.

Laurie said the parish has submitted its plans to the Capital Region Planning Commission, which is in the midst of their regular traffic plan review. If the tax passes, the regional authorities will plug Ascension's plan into their model.

Construction on the road projects could start as early as the end of 2013.