Baton Rouge’s long-planned bus rapid transit project will receive $15 million in discretionary federal grant funding, local officials announced today, covering 37% of the project’s anticipated $40.2 million cost.
The grant is being awarded through the Better Utilizing Infrastructure to Leverage Development (BUILD) Transportation Grants program, which supports road, rail, transit and port infrastructure projects across the country.
Envisioned as a “central spine” to the Capital Region’s transit system, the nine-mile BRT line will connect Plank Road to Nicholson Drive, with stops along north Baton Rouge, downtown and LSU’s campus. As the centerpiece of the “Imagine Plank Road” corridor master plan recently unveiled by Build Baton Rouge, officials say the project would go beyond catalyzing redevelopment in north Baton Rouge to also connect the area with south Baton Rouge.
“We now have a powerful story of our ability to work together toward innovative solutions to address not only urban transit needs, but broader equitable development goals,” says Chris Tyson, CEO of Build Baton Rouge, in a prepared statement.
In another statement, CATS CEO Bill Deville says “the unique confluence of available local funding to match the federal dollars”—coupled with the synergy of the Plank Road master plan and other development downtown and along Nicholson—made the city’s grant application competitive, adding it should serve as an example for future infrastructure projects in Baton Rouge.
To cover the remaining 63% of the BRT’s price tag, the city-parish will partner with CATS to leverage other funding sources, including: city-parish transit-specific federal formula funds, federal and state safety enhancement dollars, DOTD “Road Transfer” monies dedicated to Plank Road and Nicholson Drive, and MovEBR funds dedicated to Plank Road and Florida Boulevard for roadway, sidewalk and traffic signal upgrades along the route.
CATS has also pledged $7 million of its annually allocated federal transit formula funds for transit-specific elements of the project, such as buses and stations.
Once complete, the BRT will feature enhanced transit stations with real-time information, including bus arrival times and level boarding and unique branded vehicles. A new bus transfer center will be built along Airline Highway, with 22 pairs of stations and a layover facility at the southern terminus.
The city-parish will oversee the project’s planning, design and construction, executing a cooperative endeavor agreement with CATS to outline agency roles and responsibilities during all project phases before transferring all operations to CATS.
With environmental review underway, environmental approval is expected by early 2020. Design and engineering are slated to advance in 2020, followed by construction, with revenue service beginning in early 2023.
