Bossier City Council: Carriageway opening date, SoBo development concerns, another no-surprise 'No' vote

The $80 million Walter O. Bigby Carriageway is nearing completion. Bossier City Engineer Ben Rauschenbach told the City Council Tuesday that final construction matters are being attended to.

"The striping is scheduled for after Labor Day," Rauschenbach said. "We expect that to take about seven days to complete, with permanent signage following shortly thereafter. The new signal mast arm, that's going to be delivered on 8/30, so here very quickly. We expect that to be complete by September 9th and we're planning, if all goes well, to open the Carriageway to traffic by September 16th."

Rauschenbach added that additional work is planned for the area.

"I learned today that DOTD has also received a bunch of money for Benton Road as well. I've got a meeting with DOTD to talk about the city's funding appropriations as well as theirs to make sure we're not all duplicating effort," he added. 

In another project being completed, Rauschenbach said new signals will be up on the freshly overlaid portion of Airline Drive on September 10th.

Sobo residential development concerns

District 1's Brian Hammons asked questions about a residential development in South Bossier when a rezoning vote was considered. The ordinance involved five acres of land for Parkway Place, north of Rossie Lee Drive and west of Longstreet Place.

“My phone has been blowing up over this," Hammons said. "The one main concern that people calling about, one, the narrowness of Rossie Lee with adding more traffic, houses backing out onto Rossie Lee Drive. I know that we've had it in the plan for a while at the entrance of Rossie Lee at (Highway) 71 to get that entrance fixed before this subdivision goes into place with, I guess, 21 more houses going on Rossie Lee Drive.”

Hammons also noted the need to widen the entrance and fix the culvert. 

"School buses fall off into it all the time. Anything larger than a 16-foot trailer falls off the side of that entrance," Hammons said. "Another question that I've got from a lot of people is if we can look into some striping or something like that on Rossie Lee Drive, just to give the road a little bit of division on an east and west corridor right there, if that could be an option too before this development gets a little bit further along."

Wade Rich, Director of Public Works, said the entrance of Rossie Lee at Highway 71 is included in the current asphalt overlay program.

"We're just about finished with the plans now," Rich said. "Fixing that entrance onto 71, and then that intersection there on Rossie Lee where it intersects with Lilly. That will be done, I would assume, way before you get the housing development finished."

A resident, Ronald Cheatham, also expressed concerns about flooding. Kurt Nixon, with Nixon Engineering, said a drainage plan would be completed following the rezoning's approval.

"If you look at the master plan, we plan a big detention (pond) in that back corner where it ties into the ditch," Nixon said. "Because everything on their property, Mr. Hassell's old property, drains back towards that northwest corner. And so, that's where we're going to dig out a big detention pond."

Hammons was apparently satisfied that the concerns he had heard from area residents would be addressed. The first and final vote was unanimous, and the rezoning ordinance was approved.

Another no-surprise 'No' vote on a term limits election

The screenshot below tells the story. The same council members (excluding Jeffery Darby, who was absent) voted — for the third time — to deny putting local term limits on the ballot in December.

Three strikes, and you're out.

Mayor Tommy Chandler went up to bat for a term limits election with yet another resolution. Same effort. Same result.

The Bossier Term Limits Coalition has filed a lawsuit to force the council to hold an election on the initiative.