Louisiana contraflow plan

[sunny]

Has anyone had a chance to look at the map and guidelines?

I-55 North Contraflow Lanes:
The northbound and southbound lanes of I-55 from I-12 in Hammond to the Mississippi state line will be used as northbound lanes. On the Contraflow Plan, the normal norhtbound lanes are shown with RED arrows and the Contraflow (southbound) lanes are showne ith BROWN arrows.

Traffic traveling I-55 North (BROWN) will be diverted onto I-55 North Contraflow and will be allowed to exit at only two locations: Exit 47 (LA-16) in Amite and Exit 61 (LA-38) in Kentwood.

Is it just me or did they forget to tell us what's going to happen once we get to the Mississippi state line?

[dhweather]

It becomes our problem then!

[HurryKane]

Has anyone had a chance to look at the map and guidelines?

I-55 North Contraflow Lanes:
The northbound and southbound lanes of I-55 from I-12 in Hammond to the Mississippi state line will be used as northbound lanes. On the Contraflow Plan, the normal norhtbound lanes are shown with RED arrows and the Contraflow (southbound) lanes are showne ith BROWN arrows.

Traffic traveling I-55 North (BROWN) will be diverted onto I-55 North Contraflow and will be allowed to exit at only two locations: Exit 47 (LA-16) in Amite and Exit 61 (LA-38) in Kentwood.

Is it just me or did they forget to tell us what's going to happen once we get to the Mississippi state line?

I think, but could be wrong, that Mississippi will have to work with Louisiana some as a cane approaches to decide where exactly the contraflow stops. There are several crossover places along I-59 that are candidates all the way up to Laurel. I guess I keep ignoring the ones on I-10 (drive it too much to actually notice anything ) but there are a couple of places where contraflow would stop...but all would have to be east of exit 16/Diamondhead. Haven't traveled I-55 north in a while so couldn't say where those crossovers are located.

[patsmsg]

Is it just me or did they forget to tell us what's going to happen once we get to the Mississippi state line?

I can't address this specifically, because I don't know. However, I do know that I-59 in MS (for example) is set up to accept contra-flow traffic (from Slidell area) from the MS state line up to Hattiesburg. The issue is whether MS and LA can communicate and handle things as they ought to.

Last year during Ivan, very few went North from Slidell (they all went to Baton Rouge...go figure). Contra flow was never used during the Ivan evac on I-59, though it could have been used. I know this because I live off of exit 4 in MS (Picayune).

I assume some sort of similar planning has been made and I-55 contra-flow could continue within MS as on I-59. Of course whether they would implement it is another question.

[TSmith274]

I believe Mississippi has agreed to allow contraflow almost all the way to Hattiesburg. God bless 'em.

[HurryKane]

So here's Mississippi's I-59 Contraflow plan: http://www.gomdot.com/cetrp/contraflow_plan.pdf

So, the farthest north terminus for contraflow on I-59 is exit 58, south of Hattiesburg (jump to page 39 for a map). Yikes. Funneling contraflow into the Hwy 49/I-59 interchange sounds like a disaster. Hattiesburg was completely FUBARed for Ivan because they didn't know how to join I-59 and Hwy 49 traffic and left the lights through town on Hwy 49 to go on as usual. People reported it took 3 hours just to travel from one side of Hattiesburg to the other on Hwy 49.

[sunny]

Wow. Thank you everyone. I didn't want anyone I know to get into a "last minute" situation and panic. Thank you for all of the info!

[HurryKane]

Wow. Thank you everyone. I didn't want anyone I know to get into a "last minute" situation and panic. Thank you for all of the info!

Anytime. Here's where the I-59 contraflow plan came from, they have additional information about Mississippi evacuation there: http://www.gomdot.com/business/maps/map_online.htm

[bevgo]

I went north to Meridian from Chalmette LA last year during Ivan> It was a mess to the I-55/I/59 split and then improved some. Just before Hattesburg it was a total mess but I got through it. I did not have the problems my son did trying to get from New Orleans to Houston. I have a difficult time understanding why the tolls on the MS River Bridge were kept in place for so long. Traffic was backed up for miles and miles with people trying to get off the west bank. They had to wait to pay tolls. Did they prefer those people remain stranded so they could make a few extra bucks? That was really too much!