Reaction muted on loop
GONZALES — Despite continued assurances from Ascension Parish officials that the southern leg of the Baton Rouge Loop is not feasible, about 42 parish residents reviewed on Tuesday a winnowed selection of corridors through the parish for the 85- to 90-mile beltway.
After reviewing the now-familiar large aerial map of loop corridors, residents offered a mix of reactions and aired concerns that the future toll highway could one day be running through their neighborhoods despite what their leaders say.
“I think it’s coming through because it’s a big money thing. Money follows money,” said Natalie Loupe, 35, of Geismar.
The open house was one of five planned this week — another meeting was in Plaquemine on Tuesday where residents offered support — to solicit comments on a federally mandated draft environmental impact statement that will be submitted for review next year, project engineers said.
The loop, which would run through East Baton Rouge, Livingston, West Baton Rouge, Iberville and Ascension parishes, has suffered public relations setbacks in the past year and a half. Three of the five parish presidents who had sat on a toll authority overseeing the project pulled out in April 2010 and declared the project essentially dead for their area.
But funded with $6.5 million from the state and Baton Rouge, the project’s team has continued working on the environmental statement mandated for the entire five-parish loop, project engineers said.
East Baton Rouge Mayor-President Kip Holden said the project is still alive despite the departures of other parish presidents from the Capital Area Expressway Authority.
“When you’re talking about a public-private partnership, you have to look at what’s most feasible; which routes are going to generate dollars quicker,” Holden said.
A river crossing in Iberville Parish — one of four river-crossing options contemplated for the loop — wasn’t expected to generate enough money, Holden said, so it only makes sense to focus on East and West Baton Rouge and Livingston parishes, which are the most lucrative part of the plan.
Although only East and West Baton Rouge parishes are still on board, Holden said, there is still plenty of public support out there for the project.
In a Tuesday interview, Ascension Parish President Tommy Martinez, who was one of the three parish presidents to pull out, reiterated that the southern loop is not feasible due to current traffic patterns and questioned whether the project had the political support and funding to proceed any further.
“You can put a route down, but I mean like I said, ‘I can draw line anywhere I want, but if I don’t have the money. I can’t build the road,’ ” Martinez said.
Ascension resident Loupe said at the open house that she was aware of what Martinez and other officials have said about the southern loop. Still she is worried, she said.
“It may not be coming through on his term, but it’s coming through,” she said.
In the other meeting in Plaquemine in Iberville — another parish whose leader pulled out of the toll authority — residents who said they battled traffic on the I-10 Mississippi River Bridge supported the project.
They wanted a new bridge, though Holden has said the focus is not on that bridge because of questions about its feasibility.
Mallori Mire, 27, lives in Plaquemine and drives over the bridge to her Gulf South Insurance office on South Sherwood Boulevard.
“It is definitely needed,” Mire said about the southern loop from the west side. “It’s a nightmare sitting in traffic for hours every afternoon coming home.”
Final comments must be postmarked by Jan. 9 and sent to the Capital Area Expressway Authority, 9100 Bluebonnet Centre, Suite 301, Baton Rouge, LA 70809.