NEW ORLEANS — On Wednesday, City Council President J.P. Morrell said the broken traffic signals at the intersection of Louisiana and South Claiborne avenues need to be fixed as soon as possible.
Morrell called the issue located at the convergence of five New Orleans neighborhoods a 'fundamental problem' and questioned why the problem has not been prioritized by the Louisiana Department of Transportation.
"Right now, I will tell you for businesses and residents it is an absolute nightmare," Morrell said. "That traffic light which crosses a major street-slash-highway causes traffic congestion all the way back up the I-10 to when you turn to the Superdome, and that just can’t be that way until the state gets around to fixing it."
In a statement to WWL Louisiana, the DOTD stated the following:
"The traffic controller device that runs the intersection was damaged in a weather event about two weeks ago which caused the intersection to go into a default blinking mode. The event also caused several of the LED light bulbs to go out. All of the components were taken to Baton Rouge to be tested to determine the extent of the damage. Once it was determined what was damaged, DOTD alerted the contractor who installed the lights originally and they ordered and programmed a new controller and new LED lights to replace the ones that are broken."
The DOTD plans for the lights to be fully installed Friday and be fully operational by the weekend.
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