Reports of the Baton Rouge loop’s demise, as it turns out, were greatly exaggerated.
The Capital Area Expressway Authority is pushing forward, despite three of five parish presidents’ withdrawing their support for the project, and despite Gov. Bobby Jindal’s line-item veto of $5 million that Baton Rouge legislators had set aside in a spending bill to continue developing the $4.5 billion, 85-mile roadway.
The agency’s executive board continues to function with just three members: Baton Rouge Mayor Kip Holden, who serves as its chairman; West Baton Rouge Parish President Riley Berthelot; and Louisiana Department of Transportation & Development Secretary Sherri LeBas. There are no representatives from Livingston, Ascension or Iberville parishes, all of which would be impacted by the project.
But the battle over the loop, largely dormant for the past year, has been revived in recent weeks by news that CAEA is continuing its work and hopes to receive a permit from the Federal Highway Administration as early as this summer. That permit—a Record of Decision—would allow organizers to recruit a private partner to help finance the work, setting the stage for the loop to be built.
CAEA held mandatory public hearings last week in the five affected parishes, where people could review and comment on what’s called the Tier 1 Draft Environmental Impact Statement, one of the last steps required before a Record of Decision can be issued.
Despite the year that has gone by, the debate hasn’t changed much. Supporters still ardently believe the loop will help alleviate congested traffic in the Capital Region; opponents contend there are less expensive, more effective ways to accomplish the same results.
Forces on both sides of the issue have kicked their campaigns into high gear.
In the city of Central, Councilman Wayne Messina has proposed a resolution urging repeal of the law giving the CAEA authority to pursue a loop, effectively putting the city on record as formally opposing the project. A hearing on the matter was scheduled for Dec. 13.
Messina cited a report in a recent issue of the Central City News showing traffic estimates should the loop be built. According to the data, referred to as “Capital Area Expressway Authority Technical Memo No. 3,” the difference on Interstate 10 from the 10/12 split to Essen Lane once the toll road is built would be 2,031 fewer cars, and the difference from Siegen Lane to Highland Road/Perkins Road would be 906 fewer cars.
The traffic difference on I-12 is estimated to be more significant, according to the memo, reducing the number of cars from Airline Highway to Sherwood Forest Boulevard by 7,694 cars and from Range Avenue to Juban Road by 9,046 cars. Those numbers, however, do not take into account a potential decrease in traffic on arterial roads.
“Whoever it might be who is trying to sell that bill of goods, that it’s going to eliminate traffic, I don’t think they know what they’re talking about,” Messina says. “Show us what you’re talking about.”
The Central City News, published by former conservative politico Woody Jenkins, warns that those people pushing the loop hope to get money from the “Obama administration” and “government-owned banks in Communist China.” One headline proclaimed that with “1,500-Foot Right of Way and High Walls, Loop To Cut City in Half”; another, “Unless Stopped Soon, BR Loop Will Remake Central.”
In Livingston Parish, Neighbors in Action—a citizens coalition initially formed to oppose the loop—likened the project to “the Hydra with multiple heads that keeps coming back,” and warned that public opposition is needed to “defeat this boondoggle.”
The group also issued a list of nearly 60 concerns, including questions about why East Baton Rouge Parish is “trying to push this down the throats of surrounding parishes,” and whether “Kip Holden was elected president of West Baton Rouge, Iberville, Livingston and Ascension parishes.”
Holden struck back with his own news release days before the public hearings were to begin, urging people to “take time to learn the facts” about the project. He says opponents are spreading “far-fetched” rumors about the project, noting that the loop corridor will be only 400 feet wide, rather than the 2,600 feet some have alleged.
He also dispels the notion that high walls and a wide corridor will create a “Great Wall of China” in Central.
“These stories would be laughable if they weren’t so damaging to any efforts to address traffic congestion in and around Baton Rouge,” Holden says. “Our traffic congestion chokes off economic development for the Capital Region and adversely affects quality of life. Opponents do not offer any positive solutions, only a hope that we can live with the status quo.”
Mike Bruce, managing principal of ABMB Engineers Inc., one of the lead firms on the loop project, says that although there hasn’t been a lot of publicity about the loop for about a year, engineers and others have been working with the Federal Highway Administration and the Louisiana Department of Transportation & Development to produce the environmental impact statement needed for a Record of Decision.
The public hearings last week were part of the process to ensure the public’s comments are fully documented. The deadline for public comments on the project is Jan. 9.
“We always knew these meetings were coming,” Bruce says. “It took a little bit longer to get through some details back and forth with the controlling agencies, and that’s typical. We got delayed a little bit longer than we thought.”
He says CAEA, which was given its authority to pursue the loop by the Louisiana Legislature, continues to legally function in its original capacity even without the participation of the three parish presidents who withdrew. The Federal Housing Administration and DOTD also are considered lead agencies in securing federal approval for the project. The Louisiana Transportation Authority, however, could take over at some point.
Should CAEA receive federal approval to continue, Bruce says, organizers would begin “testing the waters” to see if any investors are interested in the project. If funding is secured, another environmental study will be required.
“We have never solicited interest,” he says. “But from 2007 until today, we are continually contacted by potential investors about the status of the project and when they may become more formally interested in it.”
Bruce says supporters will be focused on doing a better job of countering what has been a successful opposition campaign by educating the public on the benefits of the loop in hopes of securing additional state funding for those subsequent studies.
“We knew going in that opposition was going to be strong, and we haven’t been surprised by anything,” he says. “We were warned by people who had done projects similar to this in other parts of the country it was going to take strong leadership and determination to make sure that this project gets fairly heard by the public.”
DOTD’s LeBas was unavailable for comment. However, agency spokeswoman Lauren Lee said in a written statement that the agency has a very limited role in the loop.
“In accordance with the state transportation plan, our focus has [been] and continues to be on improving existing Interstate highways in the Baton Rouge area as the first priority,” Lee writes. “The current loop feasibility and environmental study efforts are a local initiative in which the DOTD has not been actively engaged.”
Gene Baker of Neighbors in Action says his organization isn’t surprised the Baton Rouge loop is still on the table. He and others have met with the Federal Highway Administration and others in hopes of staying on top of any plans.
“We expected it to resurface all along,” Baker says. “There’s motive in the madness. We tried to address this issue. The governor vetoed [funding to develop it] and legislators in all the surrounding parishes opposed it, but the Baton Rouge mayor and his group continue to push. There’s just too much money flowing for it to stop here.”
