I-220 Closure

A new day better weather has traffic flowing once again on Interstate-220. Quite the opposite of what was happening yesterday at this time. Ice and slippery conditions forced officials to close the roadway. The safety of all motorist is the first concern for the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development and shutting down any road is always the last resort. DOTD Spokesperson Susan Stafford says making the determination of closing any road is a combination of weather monotoring, communication with local law enforcement and scouts looking for ice on the roads. She says when it comes to I-220, the roadway has high rises at both ends of the corridor as well as the cross lake bridge and red river bridge that are all affected by the accumulation of ice during winter weather. Therefore, to ensure public safety, they closed the entire segment. Stafford says they know closing that highway also had an effect on traffic on other roads. "Whenever we shut a road down we do realize there's gonna be some effects on some of the surface roads that are in town as far as with the increase of traffic volume", Stafford said. And that increased traffic volume spilled over into increased accidents calls in Shreveport. According to the Shreveport Police Department yesterday they receive an about 85 calls for accidents on Shreveport roads, that's significatly high compared to an average of about twenty-five calls per day, but yesterday wasn't an average day. Other roadways that were closed by DOTD was I-49 through Sheveport, and Lake Bistenau Bridge, they both opened about 10 this morning.