Fire shuts I-10 ; travelers urged to reroute
Posted on Wednesday, November 21, 2007
The shutdown of a major south Louisiana interstate because of a natural gas well fire has authorities urging motorists, including Thanksgiving travelers, truckers and Razorback fans headed to Baton Rouge, to use alternate routes.
A 55-mile stretch of Interstate 10 between Lafayette and Baton Rouge will be closed for the next two weeks while crews control the fire, which is just 300 feet from the freeway near Ramah in Iberville Parish.
I-10 is a major interstate corridor between Houston and New Orleans. The closure of the route comes during the year’s busiest traffic season.
“Obviously, this comes at an inopportune time, the busiest week of the year, the busiest travel week of the year,” said Louisiana Transportation Secretary Johnny Bradberry.
“The continued closure of this major freight and intermodal route will cause serious delays, increase costs and could disrupt shipping schedules across the country,” said Cathy Gautreaux, executive director of the Louisiana Motor Transport Association.
It also may be a headache for some Razorback fans who will be headed to Baton Rouge to attend Friday’s football game between the University of Arkansas and Louisiana State University. Arkansas expects to sell all of its allotment of 5, 000 tickets for the game, an athletics department spokesman said.
Other Arkansans likely will purchase tickets to the game elsewhere and also attend, the spokesman said.
The Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department recommended that Arkansans attending the game avoid using Interstate 49 south from Alexandria, La. Instead, Razorback fans should take Interstate 55 from Jackson, Miss., or U. S. 61 south from Natchez, Miss., according to the department.
Traffic that would normally use the closed portion of I-10 is being re-routed to U. S. 190 from Opelousas, La., to Baton Rouge, making it “heavily congested and slow moving in that area,” according to the Arkansas Highway Department.
The area also will be home to another regional football game: the nationally televised Bayou Classic between Grambling University and Southern University in New Orleans.
The blowout occurred last Thursday when workers for Bridas Energy USA Inc. of The Woodlands, Texas, were drilling a new well and the pressure blew the line, which later burst into flames. Even when the fire is extinguished, the gas, oil and other flammable materials at the well site pose a hazard until the well is recapped, emergency officials said. The well probably will be recapped by Dec. 4, they said.
Truckers have been asked to use Interstate 20 across north Louisiana as the primary eastwest corridor, Louisiana transportation officials said. Motorists traveling between Baton Rouge and New Orleans are being asked to take U. S. 90.
Law enforcement agencies stretching from East Baton Rouge Parish to Lafayette Parish are working to keep the flow of traffic as smooth as possible along the areas affected by the I-10 closure, the officials said. Information for this article was contributed by Noel E. Oman of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and The Associated Press.
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