we been thru this so many times with this geauxpass, its absolutly sad!!!! welcome to LOUISIANA!!! i would pay and i would get a ticket in the mail and i would call and they said oh, its paid, don't worry about it!!! but, how many people, just would pay it again and didn't check, because they didn't want to be bothered??? more money for the politicians pockets!!!!

Sure will be glad when they get the pay at the bridge lane open!!!

Just put ur tail gate down so the camera dont pick up your Lic plate

rippin...I guess it's all in 'angles'...what goes around (in over control) comes around !!!...I think the funniest one was a 'sheriff' that Lee Zurik and Fox 8 nailed...he told Zurik: ' I don't like you '...and he kept walk'n faster trying to get away from him !!!

P/S...there are rumors that Fox 8 has a 'super big one' they going to bust in a few months...many are look'n forward to see'n who those polished 'Prima Donna's ' might be !!!...seems like their catch'n pattern is 4 or 5 little one's for every big one !!! 'How Sweet It Is'...cheers

Everything in grand isle is high . The lil chocolate milks are like $4.00 and what ever you do don't forget any tackle because they can get you good on that too !

Hey is lee Zurich still alive ? I figured someone would of taken him out by now ! Lol

Sorry about your problem at the 'good ole boy money grab highway'! I went through it Thurs. and saw where they are building the toll booth. So what's next for us taxpayers? They will keep the present building open with all the employees and now build a toll booth and hire another 20 people to run it? Them teachers from southwest La. might get a few more recall signatures than they anticipated!
Saw a guy in a pickup on the highway with one of those carryalls on his receiver hitch. Couldn't see his license plate because of the ice chest on it. Funny though there was nothing in the truck bed.

the bow of my boat is close to my truck and they can not see the plate on the truck.

toodeep: does your boat trailer not have a license plate too?

if u really wanna be discreet you might as well go ahead and cover up your vin number as well.....those cameras can see that too

i want to know what is up with the design of the bridge, the 90degree turn when you first get on the bridge, the way it curves around the marsh and the high and low spots, was it built like this cause of the way the land is divided or quality of the land underneath was better or did they do it just for the heck of it???????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Last time I went across that bridge,I got to Fourchon and I'll be,somehow a trashbag had got stuck to my License plate on my truck.

the road was designed like that because it will EVENTUALLY connect to golden meadow in a straight line so that it bypasses the lower road completely

as to hiding the license plate here is the law as it was explained to me by a state trooper:

a vehicles license plate must be displayed in a manner to allow full viewing acces to the vehicles behind it and must not be obstructed altered or defaced in any way as to render it not easily visible.

now riding with the tailgate down is ok because a vehicle following you can still see it clearly.

as a side note about how ANAL they are about plates, i had a very old plate on my last truck that all the paint peeled off of and it was just silver aluminum and impossibly hard to read.

well i like my truck to look nice so i got some matching paint to the plates original colors and repainted the plate and hand panted the numbers and outline so it looked brand new again but it wasnt reflective paint, well about a month later a state trooper pulled me over and threatened to haul me to jail for defacing STATE property !!! (well i wasnt aware the state still owned my plate but whatever)

then he tells me i need to buy a new plate since mine has been defaced and thats what i should have done in the first place instead of repainting the old one.

well the reason i painted it was i wasnt going to spend the $40 to buy a new plate so to avoid breaking the law and going to jail yet still avoid being screwed over i reported it as 'lost or stolen' in order to get an $18 REPLACEMENT plate.

my point is, the system is only there to screw people over.

IF YOU DIDNT PAY THE TOLL THEN YOU SHOULDNT GET A RECIPT BUT THATS TOO FAIR OF A SYSTEM FOR THEM TO FIGURE OUT

That system was doomed from the start. I still wonder what idiot bureaucrat ythought it would work???

Anyway, the good news is that the Cash/Debit/Credit card payment booth opens on Wednesday at the bridge. I sure hope this works better than the present system.

Anyone want to guess at how many days out of the first month the cash toll system wont work???
I'll venture a guess and say 12

BATON ROUGE, La. - One of the loans used to finance a troubled toll bridge in coastal south Louisiana has been downgraded to junk bond status.

Fitch Ratings announced the downgrade Monday of a $66 million outstanding federal loan that helped pay for the $161 million bridge on La. Highway 1 in Leeville, just west of Grand Isle.

Fitch said it downgraded the bond rating because of the weak performance of the toll collections. The rating agency said there's a 'strong likelihood' of a default on the loan without a restructuring of the debt.

Jodi Conachen, a spokeswoman for the state transportation department, said the downgrade doesn't affect the payback rate of the loan. She said the department is beefing up its toll collection efforts to increase the funding to pay off the debt.


Read more: http://www.wdsu.com/news/local-news/new-orleans/Leeville-bridge-loan-dropped-to-junk-bond-status/-/9853400/15149218/-/y45646/-/index.html#ixzz1yF5mmmbn

I'm confused on what the spokesperson for DOTD means by 'beefing up toll collections'? Is that means anyone with a trashbag on their l. plate will be apprehended? Please educate me. Thanks.

The cash/debit/credit lane was initially reported
as a manned toll booth. The DOTD has changed that to a fully automated system which will take around
three minutes per car to pay. Time to familiarize yourself with the machine, choose type of vehicle,
choose type of payment, insert three one dollar bills, bill gets kicked out due to folded corner,insert bill again, wait for change,request receipt,take receipt. This will essentially make
matters worse.....just put a guy sitting on a bucket....collecting tolls and problem solved.

The elivated portion of LA 1 is the creation of a group called LA 1 Coalation. It is a coalation of Oil Companies, just check out their board of directors. It is truly the 'Bridge from Hades that the Oilfield Built.' It was a bill of goods that was forced onto the public, with promices of 4 lanes, cloverleaf ramps, and a hurricanne evacuation route. All because the old Leeville bridge was supposed to be undermined. Since built it has had disasterious consenquences. Three fatalities and hundreds of accidents at the 90 degree turns, only collecting 30% or less of the tolls, and no secondary route to cross Bayou Lafourche. It ends at Port Fourchon and had adverse effects on local bussiness in Leeville. The new collection booth is predicted to create a big traffic jam. LA 1 Coalation has been rejected on recent applications for more money to expand to Golden Meadow because of all the problems.
They could have spent the money on elivating LA 1 and adding another lane along with a new elivated Leeville bridge. They could have done it twice with the money they have spent and are planning to spend. Some folks have questioned the legality of it all as it is a bridge that collects a toll with no secondary route available in case of emergencies. I WONDER WHY THE NEWS MEDIA HAS NOT JUMPED ON THIS BOONDOGGLE. You would think that with all the oil coming from Fourchon, a safer, better plan would have been worked out. Where is Lee Zurich when you need him?????? This story is far from over. Just wait for the next major hurricanne or evacuation.The people of Lafourche Parish have complained but only the local media has covered the on going debate with the performance of LA 1 Coalation.For more ingormation and to see for yourself, search LA. 1 Coalition, Lafourche Parish Port Commission Meeting Minutes, Lafourche Parish Goverment Minutes and related stories in the Daily Comet and Lafourche Gazzet.

Thanks for the informatin and insight, Capt. Bob.
These 'good ole boys ' don't care how they spend the taxpayer's money. They'll raise the tax rate and give themselves a raise in the process.

It's funny that I checked the fishing reports today and I see this report about the geauxpass. I went to Grand Isle twice last month and purchased my geauxpass online the night before each trip.. just yesterday i recieved a Geauxpass violation in the mail with a picture of my license plate and the two days I crossed the LA 1 bridge citing me for TWO violations... I pulled out my two receipts and dialed the phone number on top of the violation... This is what I was told by the lady on the phone: Did u pay cash or credit? I said credit and I have the receipts in front of me...What is ur vehicle's LP#? so I told her and she comes back with ' the machine had truoble reading my LP# on the computer because I was just supposed to enter #'s not letters on the line when it ask u for ur LP#????' HUNH???? I very nicely said ok and she said the charges will be erased!!!! WOW!!!

Geaux pass. Golden Meadow speed trap. Ilegally closed marsh. For an area so dependent on fishermen and tourism, you would think they wouldn't kill the golden goose. And the locals tolerate it, too. Only in Louisiana.

One reason the East Bank fishing areas have received most of my money the last ten years........

But, there's always hope Golden Meadow, Fourchon, and Grand Isle people will elect politicans for real change.......

Dr.Spot...my 'Caminada Grandpa' would also say: 'mess w/'da eggs but not w/'da goose '...at the moment there is a company in Shreveport that has put together a whole week of fishing for about 15 people...due to some attitudes and costs in Grand Isle...they chose Venice !!!...cheers to 'ya

can you imagine, how long it will take some people, to figure out that machine??? i know we have road rage, so i think now, we will have (bridge rage)!!!!! e-man, i think 12 days is a low estimate!!! youtoo, i agree, put live human beings in the booth, not a robot and it would be a lot easier and quicker!!! give people jobs, they have families to support and they pay taxes, robots don't!!! some people will say, but, its cheaper for a robot, than paying people!! i would like to know, how much the state is paying for this robot and how much it will cost to maintain and repair??? which is cheaper in the long run??? whose brother-in-law, did they buy this robot from??? always remember, they got to keep them, big old pockets filled, no matter how, they have to do it!!!! do they care, i guess not!!!

I too recently got a ticket in the mail for two times I crossed in the past couple months. The first time, I didn't save my receipt, the second, I did. rnrnI looked up my bank statement and saw that I had paid (probably online, which is how I've been doing it) on the day that I crossed the bridge. rnrnI called them up and she finally found the payment after looking up my wife's name, who paid for it. Found the other one off the information on the receipt. She cleared those and then asked, 'You have another crossing from 3 days ago, would you like to pay for that one now?' I said I already paid, had a receipt, and she wiped that one clean too. rnrnMy buddy said he had the same problem. Either there's a problem with their system, or they're trying to sucker people into paying extra fees to 'boost the toll recovery efforts.' I have a feeling it's the latter.

You people who travel to GI and have this constant
problem with this go-pass need to get on the phone and call your state representative. Be nice but be firm. Ask him what's he gonna do about. If he tells you its out of his hands then go to work for his opponent come election time. Good luck.

Well the new pay lane opened yesterday and as you would know it it's a nightmare. Traffic backs up from the bridge to Bobby Lynn's marina at the best times. Plus it doesn't pay to have the geaux pass box because you can't get to that lane with the backup of traffic. Just glad the politicians got what they wanted!!!

Where is the media ???? This needs some investigative reporting.

At least nola.com is covering it.

http://www.nola.com/traffic/index.ssf/2012/06/new_cash_lane_on_leeville_toll.html#incart_river

Maybe theyre planning on opening a couple
Snow ball stands there in the future ? You can't count out Louisiana , they always is an angle somewhere you can bet on that !!!

c'mon now, this is freakin crazy!

put a few real life people to work and be done with it!

how much does it really cost to put somebody in the booth making minimum wage, really!

even a monkey knows bill slots even on the best of days only accept about half the bills put in them and nobody in thier infinate wisdom ever expected a major cluster fluck with this system?

take the soon to be out of work toll collectors from the GNO bridge and send them to leeville to solve this fiasco

Choupic...he comes from a very accomplished family, don't think the bad guys would get very far...could 'ya ever picture a Zurik-Brees-Marshall ticket in wonderful Louisiana ???...I might even take a shot as their 'Public Information Office'... Badge No. 11,756.1/2 !!!...cheers

YOU GUYS ARE ALL OFF BASE. YOU THINK THAT BRIDGE WAS BUILT FOR YOU. THE FACT IS THE BRIDGE WAS BUILD FOR THE COMPANIES AT THE FOUCHON AND TO TRY ATTRACT NEW BUSINESS THERE. THEY DO NOT CARE IF YOU HAVE PROBLEMS OR EVEN IF YOU USE THE BRIDGE. AS A MATTER OF FACT THE OIL COMPANIES WOULD BE HAPPY IF YOU DIDN'T USE IT. WHERE ELSE BUT LA.

deerman24 if that were really true then they would have left the old road in tact so locals could usre it and stay out of the way of the commercial traffic.

it wasnt built to bring buisness to fourchon but to find a new way of forced extortion to make money.

there is no other reason to remove a free public access road in good condition and replace it with an elevated toll road in the name of a draw bridge needing replacement and the occassional high water on the road.

there is no way that it wasn't much cheaper to simply raise the road with 24 or 30 inches of dirt and repave it then build a newer bridge like the one in empire that allows water traffic to flow under it without obstruction.

this was a total money grab pure and simple with the politicians already in pocket and paid off.

this boon-doggle will be recorded as a major failure and i hope the tolls wont last much longer before they finally write it off and turn the road back into free travel so buisness of the locals and the port itself doesnt get so screwed up to the point of doing buisness elsewhere.

if not, grand isle will soon follow leeville in being a ghost town for visitor revenue

i just hope the ones behind this blatant money grab lose their personal money over it and not just walk away without being personally hurt by it but as we all know they will find a way to pawn it off to the state so the tax payers get screwed over instead

I THINK WE ARE BOTH RIGHT. THEY WIPED LEEVILE OFF THE MAP. TO LEAVE THE OLD ROAD WOULD HAVE MAKE A LOT OF SENSE.

nobody ever had any trouble getting to grand isle, on the old hwy 1, thru leeville, and leeville was doing very well!!!

...it's a unwritten 'paradox' from the great marble halls of Red Stick:...take a circumstance that can go two ways which causes a split in common logic and divides interpetations back to a square one...in other words: 'Huey,'ya gott'a push more crawfish and garlic toes 'da natives are gett'n restless'...cheers