Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Lafayette adding parking spots downtown

Mike Loizzo
/
WBAA Radio

Some additional parking spaces are coming to downtown Lafayette.

City Engineer Jenny Leshney says removing two lanes of traffic across several blocks will free up about 19 spots on 4th Street from Columbia to Alabama streets. That also will create roughly three dozen spots on South Street from 3rd to 6th.

Leshney says changing Alabama Street from one-way to two-way prompted the changes.

“We looked at adding parking on South 4th Street, so that started the discussion of ‘OK, do we really need this turn lane?’” she says. “So, we looked at how many cars are actually turning on 6th (from South Street), and it was not that many.”

Studies showed traffic turning right off of South used 3rd and 9th streets more often than the other streets in between. Leshney says taking away the turn lane will not have much impact on traffic.

She says her staff is still considering a bike lane on South Street as well. However, one issue is the road becomes more narrow east of 5th Street.

The new spots likely won’t be added until April, after the Regions Bank at South and 5th is demolished.

Related Content