Claire Taylor

ctaylor@theadvertiser.com

One of the biggest complaints about Lafayette is the clutter -- signs, utility poles, utility lines and billboards -- along sections of Johnston Street.

As part of Project Front Yard, a business and government initiative unveiled Monday to beautify the city and parish, Johnston Street could get a new look.

Burying utility lines and eliminating dozens of creosote poles along Johnston Street could go a long way in improving the aesthetic appeal of the busy roadway.

At the request of City-Parish President Joey Durel, Lafayette Utilities System Director Terry Huval and his staff are looking into the feasibility of doing just that.

"It's important because people have said it's important," Durel said Tuesday. "Because they think it would improve the city aesthetically tremendously."

A consultant hired several years ago determined it would cost about $24 million to bury power lines on Johnston Street between College Road and Woodvale, Huval said.

That section of Johnston Street has power lines on both sides of the street, high powered transmission lines on one side of the street that require a lot more space if buried, and in some places, little to no available right of way as businesses were built close to the street, Huval said. That cost estimate included buying out some businesses, he said.

"No one was really interested in pursuing that," Huval said.

There are other major streets in Lafayette with overhead lines that residents don't complain about, Huval said. For instance, steel utility poles are used on Ambassador Caffery Parkway and require fewer poles spaced farther apart, making them not as unattractive. Wooden poles placed closer together are used on Johnston street, he said.

Huval suggested the city consider burying the smaller distribution lines, eliminating most of the overhead lines and creosote poles, and using taller concrete or steel poles for the transmission lines.

A more recent study focusing on a section of Johnston Street between Blackham Coliseum and the former UL horse farm concluded it would cost about $6 million a mile.

"That's still not a small number, but I think it's significantly more manageable," Huval said.

Durel wants LUS to bring funding options to the City-Parish Council to discuss, then start a public discussion and decide on a funding option that might require voter approval. That could be a sales tax, a property tax or a surcharge on LUS bills. He said it could be a 25-year initiative to bury all the overhead lines in Lafayette.

Huval said funding methods could include a sales or property tax or state and federal dollars.

"It's not going to be our recommendation to increase LUS rates to fund that," he said Tuesday.