BELLE CHASSE, La. — About one mile from Belle Chasse Bridge sits Adam’s Catfish House.
“Yesterday alone, it took me 45 minutes to get from my restaurant [to] go one mile to the bridge,” Adam’s Catfish House Owner Dale Adams said.
Since the construction of a new bridge started several years ago, owner Dale Adams says traffic has taken 80% of his business.
“Over 45 years, you build a pretty big clientele from around, but once they come down one time and get stuck in an hour and a half of traffic, that's it. It's over with,” Adams said.
Down the street, sales are down at B&B Tackle too, by around 20%.
Austin Plaisance runs the tackle shop with his mom. He says they’ve been able to keep their heads above water, but it hasn’t been easy.
“Five o’clock was like bumper-to-bumper traffic,” Plaisance said. “The store was completely dead from 4-6 o’clock.
Plaquemines Parish Councilmember Chris Schulz says it goes beyond business loss and traffic jams, he claims people's lives are at risk.
“Inbound traffic was on [the] eventual outbound lane,” Plaquemines Parish Councilmember Chris Schulz said. “Probably once a week people would go up the wrong lane on the bridge. There were no safety signs.”
According to Schulz, the bridge construction was supposed to be completed in August, but entrance ramps to the bridge appear to be sinking, and crews are now tearing out what they just built.
Last December, Schulz says he reached out to construction contractors, telling them poor signage and lighting caused a head-on collision. In July, the council put caution signs up themselves, seven months after their call for help.
After 45 years in business, Adams says he’s calling for help too, but he doesn’t know how much longer he can wait on it.
“We always thought that one day, you know, it would all be over, but it would come on our terms,” Adams said.
A spokesperson for the construction contractors responded saying,
“Public safety is our top priority. Our crews diligently monitor all traffic materials such as cones, signs, and barriers to ensure they remain in their planned position to maintain safe traffic flow on the bridge. In July, the project team placed signs at the bottom of both north- and southbound bridge approaches to ensure there would be no wrong-way traffic. It is an active construction zone, and we appreciate the attention and patience of drivers while the bridge is being built. We look forward to delivering a bridge that will serve this community well. ”
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