A Tuesday traffic jam on the Mississippi River Bridge in Baton Rouge had some motorists stranded in a downpour on a flooded roadway for two hours, and the worst part? It was totally avoidable.
DOTD said the flood was caused by an overabundance of litter clogging drains meant to defer the rainwater off the road.
“When our guys went out there to clear that out, that’s the first thing they started digging out, was all the litter," the DOTD’s Rodney Mallett told WBRZ.
The flooding was also caused by maddeningly unfortunate timing.
“As luck would have it, they were scheduled to be cleaned last night westbound, and eastbound tonight," said Mallett.
Mallett said the drains have been cleaned, but if trash hadn’t been tossed in the first place, the incident may not have happened at all.
“So people could help our flooding problems, not just on the Mississippi River bridge, but throughout the whole community if they would quit littering," said Mallett.
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