NEW ORLEANS — A traffic light at a major intersection is finally restored after residents spent at least two weeks frustrated. Not long after WWL Louisiana's live reports Thursday, DOTD crews were out at Claiborne and Louisiana fixing the signal.
"When the lights are out it’s a potential accidents because like I said no one knows what to do with it and sometimes it’s not safe either because everyone has to stop," resident Christy Williams said. "I passed and I saw the trucks there and I said oh my gosh it’s fixed and I was just so happy!"
While that one is fixed, others around the city are still flashing.
Traffic lights will likely be one of the infrastructure projects the new director of Public Works, Rick Hathaway, will address. Public Works is in charge of most of the traffic lights across the city, while the Department of Transportation is over those on state highways. But the DOTD has an agreement with New Orleans' Public works.
"Now we have a maintenance agreement with the city of New Orleans to maintain almost all of the traffic signals in Orleans Parish on the state highway system," Scott Boyle, the district engineer administrator for DOTD said. "So it's minor tasks, and some of them that are a little bit more involved."
With the signal at Claiborne and Louisiana, DOTD says the city tried to fix it. Then, a contractor tried. Ultimately DOTD took over the repairs and got it up and running. To get things like that fixed for residents, DOTD and public works must come together. Boyle says he's looking forward to working with Hathaway.
"We're going to work cooperatively with him and give him the support as well as we expect to support on his end," Boyle said.
If you notice any traffic signals that are not working, you can report it to the city through 311.
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