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LA 22 in Gonzales to see first upgrades in 20 years

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GONZALES - LA 22 in Gonzales is a worn down stretch of road that hasn't been fixed in 20 years, but the state and city are uniting to make the roadway smoother and safer.

"It needs to be redone, a lot of big trucks travel on there, its real bad, noticeable when it rains because of all the water that it holds, obviously making it pretty unsafe," said Geoff Greene, a worker at a nearby plant.

Much of the traffic on LA 22 originates from the many plant workers that need the road to get to and from work every day.

With safety being a concern, the state and city are spending the $2.1 million needed for the project to fix it.

Crews are now tearing up three miles of pavement on LA 22 with the plan being to resurface the road. It'll be a much smoother ride for the many industrial workers that use the road week in and out week once the work is complete. Plant workers also point out that many other drivers tend to use LA 22 as a "cut through" route.

"Just working at Motiva those are the two ways to get there, it's sort of a pinch point, so traffic is always a giant issue around here I think," said Greene.

A resident of the area, Cassidy Mire, says she works at a shop on LA 22, and she argues there are plenty of other roads in Gonzales that are much worse.

"There's a whole bunch of stuff thats messed up around here. We have roads that flood really bad, and people can't even drive on them when it rains," said Mire. "They actually have to block them off with barricades. This one didn't seem that bad to me. It was pretty smooth compared to the other roads."

However, the state says it's time to fix this particular stretch of roadway, mainly due to the pavement being worn down after two decades without any improvements.

The upgraded part of LA 22 will run from LA 44 to LA 70 with completion of the project set for September.

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