A group of business and industry leaders who have been analyzing potential solutions to the area’s chronic gridlock will present their initial report Tuesday night to Baton Rouge area lawmakers and regional parish presidents.
Capital Region Industry for Sustainable Infrastructure Solutions, which goes by the acronym CRISIS, has put pencil to paper and created a cost benefit analysis of 19 mega projects that would increase traffic capacity in the Capital Region.
The list includes such big-ticket projects as the widening of Interstate 10, the widening of the Mississippi River Bridge, construction of a new bridge and the creation of a loop around the city.
CRISIS Chairman Scott Kirkpatrick says the group is not yet ready to publicly release the analysis, which basically ranks the projects in terms of which delivers the most bang for the buck. But he says it will be available after lawmakers from the Capital Region legislative delegation and parish presidents from the area review it.
“We need to get feedback from them first,” he says. “We want to make sure the data syncs up with the cost. In some cases we may have to go back to the drawing board.”
The analysis, which was prepared by staff at the Capital Region Planning Commission, will be a tool lawmakers can use as they evaluate potential solutions to the area’s traffic woes, Kirkpatrick says.
“It’s not a complete ranking of projects,” he says. “But it definitely will show that some projects have a better ROI than others.”
The state has a more than $3 billion backlog of road and bridge projects in the Baton Rouge area alone.
A new report prepared for Gov.-elect John Bel Edwards by a panel studying transportation issues suggests lawmakers have to stop raiding funds dedicated to infrastructure and transportation before deciding which projects to tackle first.
—Stephanie Riegel
