INDReporter

Verot widening on tap?

by Walter Pierce

The Lafayette City-Parish Council will vote on an ordinance for final adoption Tuesday that, if approved, would give the city the green light to take over a stretch of Verot School Road from the state Department of Transportation and Development.

The Lafayette City-Parish Council will vote on an ordinance for final adoption Tuesday that, if approved, would give the city the green light to take over a stretch of Verot School Road from the state Department of Transportation and Development. The purpose of the transfer is for widening Verot to four lanes from Ambassador Caffery Parkway to Pinhook Road, stretch that is just over three miles in distance.

According to the ordinance, the city would receive a $3.3 million road transfer credit from the state, which would offset - but not by much - the projected cost of widening Verot. A 2009 cost projection provided to the Metropolitan Planning Organization, i.e., the City-Parish Council, pegged the widening cost at just over $25 million, although that was for widening Verot from Vincent Road to Pinhook - or a tenth of a mile more in distance.