Lafourche Parish, La. - William Spears pulled up to the Geaux Pass center in Golden Meadow, hoping to purchase a one-time pass to Grand Isle.
Spears found the kiosk closed, with signs directing him to the new cash lane on the La. 1 bridge.
"I haven't been down since they started this, but I'm sure it's going to be a backup right there," he says.
Spears was right. He waited 10 minutes to get through the cash kiosk onto the elevated portion of La. 1 and many people say the average backup here is much longer.
The Department of Transportation and Development opened a cash lane on the bridge Wednesday, hoping to make it more convenient for drivers headed south without a Geaux Pass.
By Thursday afternoon, traffic getting onto the bridge was so badly backed up that Harbor Police had to open both sides of the road to cars headed south. DOTD workers waived drivers through without collecting tolls.
The DOTD opened the cash lane because officials say too many people weren't paying before.
"They were having trouble with matching the vehicles to the entry and some people were getting the passes before, some after," says Lyle LeBlanc with DOTD. "It just wasn't working properly and we were missing a lot of our tolls."
LeBlanc thinks traffic will start moving again once people get used the new kiosk.
He also says the state is working to expand the Geaux Pass lane, so those drivers don't get stuck in the traffic jam.
"After this thing gets set up and rolling along good, that's probably the only time you're going to see any delays is when you have a holiday and when you have your weekend warriors come out here," he says. "That's the people that are not going to want to purchase our Geaux Passes."
Restaurants and bait shops in Leeville depend on that weekend and holiday traffic. Tommy Dupre says his business is down 50 percent in the last two days because drivers can't get through.
"For Fourth of July weekend and for Tarpon Rodeo, there's going to be an additional 4,000 cars down here." says Dupre. "Additional 4,000 cars, at at least a minute at that machine, 45 seconds at that machine... Traffic's going to be backed up to Golden Meadow and they know it."
DOTD workers will be at the bridge at least through the Fourth of July weekend to make sure traffic moves smoothly.
Part of the traffic back-up on La. 1 Friday afternoon
