Residents and DOTD clash with council over proposed Howard Avenue couplet in Terrebonne Parish

Council debate over a proposed extension of the Howard Avenue couplet turned into a protracted exchange on Feb. 25 as East Park neighborhood residents warned the change could trap households behind bridges and slow emergency response.

Chris West, an East Park Avenue resident, told the council he only learned of the plan days before the meeting and urged officials to consider local emergency access. “If the ambulance or the fire truck got to come from wherever...they'd have to go all the way around the South Van or Howard Avenue to come back around. You know, extra 15 minutes can be a thing of life or death or your house burning all the way to the ground,” West said.

Another resident, Chris Anthony Bone, said outreach for a November 2024 DOTD meeting had been spotty; he told the council many neighbors did not receive notice and described display boards and a brief video but no public-speaker presentation. He urged the parish to pursue a bypass—potentially along Robert Street—to provide redundancy for the neighborhood if a bridge were out of service.

Jacob, speaking for the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD), said ship openings at the Dagville and Howard bridges are relatively rare and that both Dagville and Howard have morning and evening curfews so openings do not occur during peak commute times. He said Dagville might open “a couple” times per week while Howard sees about 12–15 openings per month. Jacob also described outreach for the 2024 public meeting — newspaper notices, 100 letters, Facebook posts and signs — and noted the parish would work with DOTD on any mitigation.

Council members discussed alternatives including shifting only the Main Street side to one-way while leaving the other side two-way, adding a left-turn arrow at Deckville to alleviate backups, and re-examining whether the couplet should extend to Howard. Several council members suggested the proposal should be refined with DOTD and that contingency plans (temporary traffic reversions and coordination with emergency services) be identified before implementation.

The matter remained in the discussion phase; no formal ordinance or commitment to construction was made at the meeting. Council members said they would request additional study from DOTD and consider short-term mitigations such as traffic arrows or allowing emergency responders to temporarily alter traffic patterns in a bridge failure. The council encouraged residents to monitor upcoming committee meetings for follow-up.