Officials open bridge after 2 years

Closed span isolated neighborhood in the Glen Oaks area in north Baton Rouge

When Diane Dangerfield suffered a heart attack earlier this year, a closed bridge near her home blocked and delayed paramedics, almost costing Dangerfield her life, she said.

“It took so long for them to get to me because when they hit that roadblock, they had to search for another way into the neighborhood,” Dangerfield said Saturday, adding the alternate route is on the other side of the North Forest Heights subdivision. “I am just so blessed to be here today, and so thankful this bridge is back.”

Dangerfield spoke from the newly reconstructed Blue Grass bridge, which officially reopened Saturday after being closed for repairs for nearly two years.

State inspectors judged the bridge on Blue Grass between Sumrall Drive and West Perimeter Drive near the Glen Oaks neighborhood unsafe for vehicular traffic in February 2010 and ordered the city-parish to close it within 24 hours.

Some $610,000 in city-parish funds to replace the bridge were secured in June 2010, but residents went nearly another year without seeing any work done on the structure.

City-parish officials said in early 2011 that they had moved as swiftly as they could on the project, but it took time to complete design work, arrange to have water and gas lines relocated and put the project in a position to go out for bid.

Together Baton Rouge joined the effort in March to rally local leaders to expedite the process, holding a rally at the bridge and packing a Metro Council meeting to secure a guarantee from officials that the bridge would reopen by early November.

Together Baton Rouge is a coalition of civic groups and faith leaders that has sought to bring people together across racial, neighborhood and economic lines to work on problems confronting the community.

“This is just so encouraging,” Rev. Ronald T. Williams, pastor of Mount Carmel Baptist Church, said of the group’s first completed project. “It can be hard to wrap your mind around the concept of what working together can really do, but this shows that you can make a difference.”

Williams said the group would expand on this accomplishment, moving toward bigger, broader-impact projects in the future.

Mayor-President Kip Holden was among a handful of city-parish and elected officials at the reopening, and praised the group’s efforts to restore the bridge.

“This is what happens when people come together, without bickering, to make things happen,” Holden said. “You now have a movement to take to the rest of the community, and you can say, ‘There is nothing that can defeat us.’”

Charlotte Valentine, a resident of North Forest Heights, said the closed bridge was an inconvenience and safety hazard for her neighborhood. Residents had to use a dilapidated road — the only way in and out of the subdivision without the bridge — and emergency responders were delayed by the detour, she said.

Valentine said two houses, her’s and a neighbor’s, caught fire in the nearly two years the bridge was closed, and emergency crews were hindered both times by the closure.

Dorothy Thomas, Together Baton Rouge leader and resident of the neighborhood, said seeing the bridge open for traffic is a “great feeling.”

“The people of this neighborhood, we’re no longer isolated, no longer locked in,” she said. “It’s one of the best feelings I’ve had to know that people of all races, religions, churches and neighborhoods are standing together with me today in this accomplishment.”