Abbeville Council requests DOTD conduct study on portion of Highway 167

The Abbeville City Council voted Tuesday during its regular meeting to officially request that the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD) conduct a study of the portion of U.S. Highway 167 that leads into the city.
The request comes in the wake of more than 50 crashes that have occurred in the area during the last two-and-a-half years. The stretch of highway is less than a half mile just north of the La. Highway 14 Bypass.
Abbeville Police Chief Tony Hardy said speed is a prominent factor in the crashes. The speed limit is 65 miles per hour, before dropping to 55 and then 45 before the intersection at Highway 14. There are residential properties along 167, a major concern for Hardy.
“It’s a five-mile-an hour difference from you trying to go from a private driveway onto Interstate 10,” Hardy said. “That’s some serious speed when you are pulling out.
“That’s why all the accidents are so serious right there. Everybody is doing 55 and 65 right there.”
The council has no control over the speed limit on the highway. Officials with the DOTD have told the city that a study will be conducted in the coming months that will determine what should be done.
Councilman Louis Joe Hardy, whose District A includes the area, said he would like to see a turning lane.
“I’ve been trying to get that done for 15 years,” Councilman Hardy said.
Mayor Mark Piazza said the issue is certainly concerning.
“There have been some horrible collisions,” Piazza said. “It’s not a rare occurrence, but I was shocked when Chief Hardy presented us with the number of accidents in that short period of time.”
With businesses in the area,
including Courtesy of Vermilion and the soon-to-open Midsouth Bank, Piazza said the time is now to find a solution. That area continues to develop and it is becoming more and more of a serious problem.”
Councilman Hardy said he fears the worst.
“Someone is going to end up being killed if something is not done,” he said.
In the meantime, Chief Hardy said he will have a traffic officer regularly watch the area.
“I had one sitting out there this morning,” Chief Hardy said Thursday. “We are just trying to make people aware and to slow down.
“We don’t want anyone to be killed right there.”