PRAIRIEVILLE- At Perkins Road and Perkins Oak Road, right by the Walmart in Prairieville, traffic is chaotic.

The stoplight came down for drainage work, and soon after, temporary stop signs went up, but when the work ended, those were pulled down too.

"Anyone who goes to that intersection in any direction puts themselves in danger," resident Marian Tomasino said.

That has longtime residents like Marian Tomasino worried every time they leave home.

"That's what we want is a light you have to have. You can't have a 4-way stop, you can't have any of that nonsense, you have to have a light," she said. 

Tomasino says the current setup makes her feel unsafe on the road.

"The chaos is a nightmare, it's an accident waiting to happen, there's no question," she said. 

Rodney Mallett with DOTD said the light isn't coming back, and for safety reasons.

"The reason that we took out that light is because there's a safety hazard with people shooting across lanes to turn left," said Mallett.

Instead, DOTD is reworking the intersection — adding a left-turn lane and a raised median to block cut-throughs.

"What they're doing right now is putting in the raised median so you're not going to be able to turn left there," Mallett said. 

In the meantime, drivers are navigating around cones. DOTD said they can only do so much.

"We have cones out right now and we can give people information on how to drive safely, but they have to take that information and use it, and then they're going to mill and put down asphalt, and this project should be completed by the end of the year," Mallett said.