It was standing-room-only in the Salmen High School cafeteria Thursday night as residents and business owners along the southern part of U.S. Highway 11 came to listen and give their opinions on a proposal to widen the highway from two lanes to four.

According to Walter Brook, director of the Regional Planning Commission, the St. Tammany Parish government put the proposal forth, and the RPC started the process by holding the first of several public meetings.

“We want to beautify the area, and make it safer for traffic,” Wood said.

U.S. 11 businessman Shaq Nizamuddin, right examines proposed plans for widening the highway while Thomas Swanson, left, of Krebs, LaSalle, LeMieux Consultants explains the maps. (Staff Photo by Erik Sanzenbach)

The mood in the cafeteria was at times angry, but mostly skeptical as residents in general said they thought the idea was not a good one.

The RPC has hired the firm of Krebs, LaSalle, Lemieux Consultants Inc. to come up with several plans for the highway, and to also start the long process of getting an environmental impact study done to see if the project is feasible.

The consultants have come up with three alternative plans for the highway. All three expand the highway from two to four lanes. However, one alternative adds a bike path and a jogging path. The second would only have a bike path and the third concept would only have a sidewalk for pedestrians.

Wood stressed that the proposed alternatives are just concepts currently.

“None of these are locked in, and no construction is being proposed,” Wood said.

He said the RPC was here just to listen and take people’s ideas and incorporate them.

Still, many residents were not convinced that the widening needed to be done.

“What is the purpose of this?” asked Mary Tiesen, owner of the restaurant and bar The Landing. “I will lose all my parking spaces. I can’t stay open unless I have a certain number of parking spaces.”

Expanding the highway would mean building the two extra lanes to the east over the state’s right-of-way, which would decrease a lot of frontage space for the businesses along U.S. 11.

The expansion will be from Spartan Drive in Slidell all the way to the U.S. 11 bridge. It is that bridge that makes residents wonder how traffic will be improved.

The bridge is only two-lanes wide and everybody said the extra two lanes of U.S. 11 would only cause a bottleneck for traffic either coming off or going onto the bridge.

Most everybody who spoke said that if the government wanted to improve traffic and make it safer, would be to just add a turning lane in the middle of the road.

“A turning lane, bikepath and sidewalk are good,” said resident Vincent Cousin. “But the rest is just too much.

Other people said the $20.9 million estimated cost for the widening could be used for other improvements to the area like improved drainage, raising the road bed to keep it from flooding, or just put in a simple turning lane.

There were others who said the project was a good thing.

“This is a win-win situation for everybody,” said Liz Holden, president of the Eden Isles Homeowners Association. “The highway is a dangerous place, and we should work together to improve the area.”

Most people agreed that something should be done, but adding two more lanes to the highway was not the answer.

There were some residents like James Amato who said that residents should realize if nothing is done, the money will be used to fix roads elsewhere.

“If you kill this, the road may never get improved,” Amato warned his neighbors.

Representatives of the RPC and the consulting company did not offer any rebuttals or counterproposals to the residents’ suggestions, which seemed to please Parish Council Chairman Jerry Binder who attended the meeting.

“They [RPC] were listening. They didn’t try to ram anything down our throats,” Binder said. “I think they know we want the right mix. This is a good start.”

Woods said that another public meeting would be called in about 45 days and the residents’ ideas and suggestions would be incorporated into the plans.

“I appreciate your honesty, and your comments are very constructive,” Woods said.

But that didn’t seem to appease resident Richard Saavedra.

“This is the most foolish thing I’ve ever heard of. All we need is a turning lane. That will improve the traffic,” he said.�